Nick ThorpeCentral Europe Correspondent
Reuters
Rumen Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria party won the Bulgarian parliamentary elections on Sunday, the eighth parliamentary elections in five years.
With 87% of the votes counted, his Progressive Bulgaria (PB) obtained a majority of at least 135 seats out of the 240 seats in Parliament.
The PB beat the liberal PP-DB coalition, which held 15%, and former Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s GERB party, which held 13%, according to the commission.
The elections were called after the previous government tried to push through a controversial budget in December, provoking massive protests that Radev, as president, supported.
“People rejected the complacency and arrogance of the old parties and did not fall prey to lies and manipulation. I thank them for their trust,” Radev said in his victory speech.
He promised to build “a strong Bulgaria in a strong Europe”.
“What Europe needs now is critical thinking, pragmatic actions and good results, notably to build a new security architecture and (…) regain its industrial strength and competitiveness. This will be Bulgaria’s main contribution to its European mission,” he said.
Radev, 62, is seen as a pragmatic, somewhat pro-Russian leader who has criticized EU sanctions and called for constructive dialogue with the Kremlin.
He opposes Bulgarian military support for Ukraine, but is unlikely to repeat Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s role as saboteur of EU support for kyiv.
Analysts in the capital Sofia suggest he will take a pragmatic approach, allowing Bulgarian arms exports via third countries, but ending direct support for military equipment from the Soviet-era arsenal.
He ran that election largely on the basis of domestic policies, promising to fight corruption and restore stable government after years of weak and easily toppled coalitions.
He resigned after nine years as president in January to form his new movement.
A former Mig-29 fighter pilot and commander-in-chief of the Bulgarian Air Force, his victory is impressive by Bulgarian standards.
The result gives progressive Bulgaria a mandate to govern alone, but it will need the support of the second-place party, called “We Pursue Change – Democratic Bulgaria”, to pass key legislation ending political pressure on the judiciary, which requires a two-thirds majority.
In his first speech Sunday evening, Radev said he was looking for coalition partners.
Bulgaria is a major supplier of ammunition and explosives to Ukraine, via third countries, notably neighboring Romania.
The war gave new impetus to an arms industry that had been struggling since the Soviet era.
Since 2022, Radev has frequently spoken out against the sale of Bulgaria’s stockpile of Soviet-era weapons to Ukraine, on the grounds that they prolong a war that Ukraine cannot win – an argument similar to that made by outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The VMZ factory in Sopot, a two-hour drive east of Sofia, produces NATO-grade explosives and 155mm artillery shells.
In October 2025, German arms company Rheinmetall announced a billion-euro joint venture with VMZ, to produce up to 100,000 155mm rounds per year.
A separate gunpowder factory will also be built in Sopot. Rheinmetall will own 51% of the company’s shares.
The production will be part of efforts across Europe to increase military production.
While he opposes military supplies to Ukraine, Radev takes credit for inviting Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger to Bulgaria in March 2025.
“Bulgaria is becoming an integral part of the European defense ecosystem,” Radev said during a visit to Rheinmetall headquarters in Unterluss, Germany, in August 2025.
His position, as head of government, appears likely to be similar to that of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico – critical of EU support, but not imposing a veto on private arms manufacturing for Ukraine.
