“Progressive Bulgaria” (PB) won a mandate to govern (convincingly), which was reaffirmed in the recent presidential election (not nearly as convincingly, and with problems in the first round). The question remains, however, what exactly this is a mandate for. The first and unequivocal point was that this was a mandate to remove the corrupt legacy, primarily of GERB and the MRF — after all, that was precisely what the protests at the end of 2025 were about. So far, however, nothing substantial has happened on this issue, although preparatory work is under way. It consists of accumulating influence in the security services, adopting laws and procedures for a new Supreme Judicial Council, “teasing” between Minister Demerdzhiev and Delyan Peevski, Boyko Borissov keeping a low profile while increasingly regaining his composure, and PB’s media attacks on the “assembly” (imaginary at this point). All of this is presented as “removing the oligarchy from power”. But a more sceptical observer would describe the situation differently — as taking control of the levers previously controlled by GERB and the MRF.
Despite the controversial results on the main part of its mandate — the fight against corruption — the government and its majority have brought about real changes in the country’s foreign policy, fiscal affairs and civilisational orientation. Reassurances that no one will take Bulgaria out of the EU and NATO are welcome in this situation, but the problem is that it is becoming increasingly unclear what the authorities understand by the EU and NATO. And that is a serious problem.
European policy and Ukraine
At the meeting in Dublin, Bulgaria did not dare refuse to support the joint declaration of the 39 countries of the European Political Community, which condemned Russia as an aggressor, committed to supporting Ukraine and stated that Europe’s security architecture must comply with the principles of international law and the charters of NATO and the framework of the EU. Bulgaria, however — uniquely — signed the document with reservations concerning its preamble, which sets out its position on Ukraine and Russia, arguing that the current state of the negotiations had not been taken into account. The preamble has no different value or validity from the other parts of the declaration, while our reservations also suggest that, in addition to objecting to condemning Russia and committing to support Ukraine, we disagree with the principle that Europe should participate in decisions concerning its own security. The very fact that Bulgaria was the only one of the 39 countries to come forward with unclear reservations shows that something is wrong with our position — 39 countries cannot all be wrong while we are right about something we cannot even explain clearly.