A corruption scandal is threatening to throw into irrelevance Bulgaria’s main pro-European reformist party. If that happens, the pro-Russians extremists would become the only alternative to the current ruling coalition.
Corruption in the party that rose out of an anti-corruption movement
In recent days, Bulgaria’s political scene has been marked by a stark dichotomy. An EU member since 2007, Bulgaria is taking the final steps towards ditching the lev and joining the Eurozone from January 2026, all while the country’s pro-EU opposition in a state of implosion.
On June 25, the co-leader of We Continue the Change party and former Prime Minister (2021-2022) Kiril Petkov unexpectedly announced his resignation from the party and from parliament, amid a brewing intra-party corruption controversy. Earlier the same day, an audio leak was sent to the media, in which Sofia’s deputy mayor Nikolai Barbutov is discussing with another party member and a regional mayor (Georgi Todorov) about whether to greenlight a development project and whether this would make the associated businessmen donate to the party in the near future through NGO’s. The deputy mayor was arrested and questioned on the same June 25, and is still under detention.
Although the leak was sent semi-anonymously to the media (by a user named Kiril Kirilov), several media, such as the Bulgarian National Television, said that sources indicate the audio has been recorded by Bulgaria’s Anti-Corruption Commission – however, neither the Commission, nor the Prosecutor’s Office has confirmed this.
In the next days, several other members quit We Continue the Change.
That was not the first wave of departures from the party. Earlier in June, We Continue the Change-affiliated regional mayors of several of Sofia’s biggest neighbourhoods left the party, vaguely explaining they have been pressured to make particular decisions, like permitting infrastructure and property development projects.
“This decision is solely mine”, said Petkov upon his resignation. “If this investigation and this recording are genuinely connected to wrongdoing, then this is indeed a big misstep […] As someone who was in charge of the nominations for the Sofia region, I want to take political responsibility for this failure to select the right people”.
The resignation was a radical gesture on Petkov’s part, which created mixed reactions over whether it was the right thing to do: he announced the decision hours after the leak, before the public had a clear understanding of what was happening, as the media coverage was intensifying.
The stepping down was welcomed by the party’s foes, with Kostadin Kostadinov, leader of pro-Russia far-righters Revival, reacting to the news by describing Petkov as “someone who is just casually passing by through the world of politics“. Revival is meanwhile still engaged with campaigning against the 2026 adoption of the euro, initiating protests against the conversion. Essentially, the nationalist / pro-Russia section of the parties still has the potential to lead protest movements, unlike the shrinking influence of the pro-EU opposition.
The resignation cuts short the dream of a relevant reformist opposition
For Petkov and We Continue the Change, the corruption controversy is reputation damage for the party, which started over the promise of battling the underlying influences in Bulgaria’s political landscape.
Kiril Petkov and the political novices who formed We Continue the Change are a product of the 2020-2021 protest wave – which focused on against GERB, Bulgaria’s leading party since 2008 and the borderline autocratic politics of then-PM Boyko Borissov, the new figures which entered the scene with the succession of interim cabinets since 2021 and Bulgaria’s election cycle between 2021-2024, in which every elections was either followed by unsuccessful negotiations, with the exception of two short coalitions of We Continue the Change.
Petkov, a Harvard graduate previously known as an entrepreneur, served as an interim Minister of Economy in 2021 in a caretaker government, handpicked by President Rumen Radev, at the time critical of GERB’s legacy and supportive of the protest movement in Bulgaria calling for reforms.
We Continue the Change, founded by Petkov and another political aspirant, former Finance Minister Assen Vassilev, stepped on their ambitions to complete their reformist ideals, hence the name.
We Continue the Change won elections in November 2021, forming a wide coalition with allies Democratic Bulgaria, There’s Such a People, also a recent presence on the political scene, with the pro-Russia the Bulgarian Socialist Party as an uneasy third partner, and Petkov as the Prime Minister.
Russia’s full-scale war with Ukraine changed internal dynamics. President Radev and the Socialists took a soft approach to the Kremlin’s war, with Radev using his next interim cabinets to reverse decisions made by Petkov’s cabinet. Petkov was eventually ousted in June 2022 after There’s Such a People left the coalition.
During Petkov’s short-lived coalition, the country cut ties with Russia’s Gazprom and established a link with Greece. In the same period, Petkov also initiated numerous expulsions of Russian diplomats and spies from Sofia, reconfirming a pro-West political perspective.
Petkov also demonstrated a willingness to improve diplomatic relations with North Macedonia after GERB imposed a veto on Skopje’s accession to the EU.
However, when they next came to power, We Continue the Change’s reputation was damaged when in June 2023 entered a coalition of compromise with their biggest opponents, GERB, and despite plans for rotating prime ministers and a shared pro-EU perspective, this one also crashed, with the two parties finding themselves at odds again.
In the near future, the only opposition in Bulgaria might be a pro-Russia one
We Continue the Change, running alongside Democratic Bulgaria, came in second in the October 2024 elections, with 14.2 per cent of the vote.
Winners GERB this time made sure to isolate the duo and carved out a coalition with There’s Such a People and the Socialists, playing hot and cold in its relations with “New Beginning”, the party initiated last year by oligarch Delyan Peevski (both Peevski and Borissov seem to have links with the Prosecution which has probed but never prosecuted the numerous controversies and corruption claims around both leaders).
The current situation will also test out the partnership between We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria, in recent elections running together to solidify the reformist vote against GERB.
The possible annihilation of We Continue the Change (which would also leave Democratic Bulgaria in an uncomfortable situation) likely means that the only hefty opposition against the GERB in the near future might be left to the nationalist and pro-Russia faction.
