In second place is the centrist coalition We continue to change (PP) – Democratic Bulgaria with 14.99 percent.
Radev’s biggest rival, the conservative center-right group GERB-SDS, has so far fallen to third place. The ultra-nationalist and pro-Russian Revival party won 4.79 percent and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), which defends the interests of Bulgarian Turks, has 4.11 percent.
In order to enter the parliament, it is necessary to overcome the electoral threshold of four percent.
Bulgaria’s pro-Russian ex-president Radev, who served two terms as head of state, resigned in January to lead his new coalition, Progressive Bulgaria, into the eighth parliamentary election from 2021.
Radev, a former air force officer, was first elected president in 2016 with the support of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party.
Although the head of state has only ceremonial duties in this Balkan country, Radev did not hesitate to use his office to criticize Russia’s support for the invaded Ukraine whenever possible.
He did not like Western sanctions and declared that military aid to Kyiv prolongs the conflict, which resulted in a sharp exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Sofia in 2023. He also condemned the ten-year security agreement between Bulgaria and Ukraine, which was signed by the interim Bulgarian Prime Minister Andrej Gyurov.
It is expected that he will hold anti-Ukrainian views even as prime minister.
