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Europe

Paradoxical alliance: Erdogan's friend and the gypsies' friend subjugate Bulgaria

2025-07-12

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Igor Ivanenko

[REGNUM] No sooner had the EU structures managed to suppress the “sovereignist rebellion” in Romania than they were faced with the prospect of losing absolute control over the policies of neighboring Bulgaria.

Moreover, it would seem that today Sofia is experiencing the apogee of European integration.

This year, Bulgaria became a full member of the Schengen Agreement, and the government of Rosen Zhelyazkov, formed several months ago, despite all the intrigues of the opposition, is confidently leading the country to enter the “euro zone”.

On July 11, the republic's parliament unsuccessfully considered the fourth vote of no confidence in the cabinet of ministers in six months; a fifth is expected in September, but its prospects are also illusory.

And this is despite the fact that Zhelezyakov heads a “minority government” that officially relies on three parliamentary factions out of nine. They have only 102 parliamentary mandates out of 240 at their disposal.

The tenacity of the current, at first glance rather flimsy, cabinet of ministers is explained by the fact that it managed to link its own future with the prospect of Bulgaria introducing the euro. They say that if Zhelezyakov's team does not hold out, then the country's accession to the European monetary union will be postponed for at least several years.

In this case, the Bulgarian ruling elites managed to take advantage of the weakened state of the EU itself.

The crisis of legitimacy of the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the almost open conflict of the Brussels bureaucracy with the Donald Trump administration, the strengthening of the intra-European front – Hungary and Slovakia, the gravitation of Romania and Poland towards it – all this has raised the price of Bulgarian loyalty to the EU institutions.

Taking advantage of the EU leadership's clear request to maintain a positive integration agenda, Bulgaria was able to win approval for the introduction of the euro. Moreover, this happened despite the fact that the country does not meet the requirements for the introduction of the euro currency in terms of key macroeconomic indicators.

Critics of this controversial move point to Bulgarian inflation being beyond EU standards. But does that matter when von der Leyen, who has suffered painful criticism for Pfizergate and her reckless support for Ukraine, needs a big PR victory?

The main sacrifice that ordinary Bulgarians are already forced to pay for their country's entry into the eurozone is the regime of austerity in social spending. This has hit the pro-European government hard in popularity. It needed a strong backing to keep it in parliament.

The paradox is that this has become the political force that is considered not to meet the standards of European democracy. We are talking about the party "Movement for Rights and Freedoms - New Beginning" headed by the oligarch Delyan Peevski.

It is one of two groups into which the pro-Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) split last year.

The part of the movement that is focused on the votes of Bulgarian citizens living in Turkey remained with the long-time leader of the DPS, Ahmed Dogan (also accused of corruption by European politicians).

Peevsky relies mainly on the ethno-religious minorities in Bulgaria itself - Turks, Muslim Bulgarians and Roma.

In the last parliamentary elections, in the fall of 2024, about 25% of those who voted for Peevski's political force were Roma. This gave the politician's opponents grounds to accuse him of bribing voters, since Roma usually do not show much interest in political life.

But, of course, Peevsky ended up on the notorious “Magnitsky list” in the US for much more obvious offenses involving the misappropriation of public funds, abuse of state property, and similar actions.

If New Beginning had not supported the ruling coalition during the third vote of no confidence earlier this month, there would have been "no government and no eurozone".

These words belong to the leader of the GERB party (Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria) Boyko Borisov, the former prime minister and de facto leader of the current pro-European parliamentary coalition. Along with GERB, it includes the Socialist Party and the populist movement "There is such a people".

Borisov is a patriarch of Bulgarian politics, whose first term as prime minister began in 2009, and for many years he skillfully maneuvered between different geopolitical centers.

For example, GERB, which is part of the European People's Party, contributed to the extension of the powers of the current head of the European Commission and her recent overcoming of a vote of no confidence. At the same time, in his home country, Borisov is considered to be perhaps the most pro-Turkish politician and a friend of Recep Erdogan.

In domestic Bulgarian politics, Borisov had to take into account for a long time the presence of other pro-European liberal parties, with which GERB was doomed to form government coalitions. For Brussels and the Democratic administration in the United States, this was very convenient, as it allowed them to keep the politicians in Sofia in check.

However, by taking advantage of the upheavals in the Euro-Atlanticist camp at the beginning of 2025, Borisov was able to avoid creating a traditional alliance with the left-liberal and American Democrat-oriented Continue Changes (CC) party.

In Brussels, the collapse of the "democratic coalition" caused undisguised irritation. But the EU leadership could not react harshly to this in the context of the emerging confrontation with the Republican administration of the United States.

Moreover, Borisov also took out insurance.

On the one hand, the government of his party comrade Zhelezjakov proclaimed a course towards the eurozone, and on the other, an informal alliance with the DPS-NN emerged.

In essence, the emergence of the Borisov-Peevsky bi-umvirate is evident in Bulgaria.

During the upcoming presidential elections in a year and the very likely early parliamentary elections, this alliance could be formalized: Borisov as head of state, Peevsky as head of government.

Recent party popularity surveys show that GERB has a support level of 24.5%, while DPS-NN is in second place with 15.7%. Third place belongs to the opposition bloc "Continue Changes - Democratic Bulgaria" (14.2%).

The absorption of the latter will probably be the main element in achieving a confident victory for Borisov, GERB and DPS-NN in the upcoming elections.

A week ago, the PP was effectively decapitated, as a corruption scandal forced the left-liberal party's leader, Harvard graduate Kiril Petkov, to resign.

On July 9, Petkov's associate, the mayor of Varna, Bulgaria's third city, Blagomir Kotsev, was taken into custody on suspicion of corruption High-ranking officials from the capital's mayor's office, where the PP also has strong positions, are also under investigation.

Associates of the persecuted officials claim that their cases are politically motivated. They have attempted to organize protests in Sofia and Varna and have sought protection in Brussels.

The latter's reaction is a major political intrigue, since the monopolization of political power in Sofia poses a number of threats to him, but the disruption of the process of introducing the single European currency in Bulgaria is also fraught with serious costs.

Posted by:badanov

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