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Official results from Bulgaria's Central Election Commission show former president Rumen Radev's Progressive Bulgaria coalition won the April 19 parliamentary election with 44.594% of the vote. The outcome, also reported by AP and Reuters, puts Radev far ahead of the country's main pro-European rivals after years of unstable coalition politics.
Key developments
- The commission's national count published on April 20 showed Progressive Bulgaria at 44.594%, compared with 13.387% for GERB-SDS and 12.618% for the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria coalition. That margin makes this one of the strongest single-party performances Bulgaria has seen in years.
- The vote was Bulgaria's eighth parliamentary election since 2021, underlining how deep the country's political instability had become. Radev campaigned on ending that cycle, linking the result to public anger over corruption, weak institutions and living-cost pressure.
- Radev resigned from the presidency in January 2026 to run for the more powerful post of prime minister. During the campaign, he presented himself as the figure best placed to break the influence of the old political elite and reset government after the previous administration fell amid protests.
- Foreign policy will draw immediate scrutiny. Radev built a reputation in office for opposing military aid to Ukraine and calling for more pragmatic engagement with Russia. At the same time, after the vote he said Bulgaria would keep moving on its European path, suggesting the biggest question now is not whether he won, but how far he will try to shift policy once in government.
What to watch
The next key update is how the election result translates into governing power inside parliament. The size of Radev's win raises the possibility of ruling without a broad coalition, but Reuters reported that he has not ruled out working with a pro-European partner or a smaller party.
The other unresolved issue is how much Bulgaria's external posture actually changes. The result clearly reshapes the domestic political map, but any concrete move on Ukraine policy, Russian energy ties or Bulgaria's role inside the EU and NATO will depend on the government Radev forms and the line he adopts after the campaign.
Sources
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