Bulgaria’s protest waves tend to follow a familiar pattern. A viral enthusiasm reaches a high point, but disgraced politicians rarely back down and just let protesters become disenchanted with the prospects of a genuine reform. And if any opposition power has been born from the outcry, usual low voter turnout will lure them at some point to old ways of compromise, making them unrecognizable for the crowds that once raised them.
But after three big protests which rocked the country between November 26 and December 10, the current ruling coalition, in power since January, stepped down on December 11 in an unexpected twist.
Fighting a system that got entrenched for over 15 years
The recent events will go down in history as one of the largest protest waves to have occurred in Bulgaria. The demonstrations were informed not just by a higher number of people on the streets but also from the presence of young protesters, leading to the popular refrain that this is Gen Z’s moment to make their mark and even comparisons to the movement in Serbia. In Bulgaria’s case, the protesters reached their goal surprisingly fast and efficiently.
Tensions escalated over the cabinet’s annual budget for 2026 which proposed increased taxes on the private sector to fund pay rises for the public sector, a shortcut, critics said, to greater government control over the public administration, military and police. More than 558,000 Bulgarians work in state administration bodies, the budget plan creating also an all-around unease on how the money would be used.
The coalition featured an uneven group of previously opposing political actors: GERB, the centre-right populist party that since 2008 has remained the predominant force in Bulgarian politics and the main vehicle for former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov; the Bulgarian Socialist Party, which retains longstanding pro-Kremlin affiliation; and the nationalists There’s Such a People (both of the latter having previously occupied opposition roles).
Parliamentary majority was secured through the backing of oligarch Delyan Peevski through his newest political platform, New Beginning, itself an offshoot of “Movement for Rights and Freedoms”, a once-influential party in Bulgaria’s post-1989 political life and focused and arguably exploited the Turkish minority in the country. Peevski is ethnically Bulgarian, but that didn’t stop him to join the party as a member back in 2009; in 2024, he took the stride to gradually overtake it.
Despite being sanctioned under Global Magnitsky Act and exposed in the Pandora Papers, among other sanctions and investigations, Peevski’s profile has only grown in recent years. Although he is not de facto in executive power, protesting crowds are largely seeing the current power dynamics as a partnership between Borissov and Peevski, both being the subject of previous anti-establishment waves in 2013-2014 and 2020-2021.
Since November 26, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across Bulgaria, in both major cities and smaller towns, with turnout in the capital Sofia likely exceeding 100,000 participants. This has surpassed major protest waves of 2013-2014 and 2020-2021. Bulgarian immigrants have also initiated demonstrations in many of Europe’s capitals, including London and Berlin.
Despite promises for revisions that first made people to take it to the streets in late November, the protest wave – led by pro-EU opposition duo We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria – was not calmed and turned into expressing a deep dissatisfaction towards Bulgaria’s power structures and desire for all-around lustration of the political scene.
The coalition’s move comes as unexpected as previous demonstrations have not managed to reach such a goal in such a short time, with previous peaks of unrest temporarily appeased by just a continuous waiting game between protesters and those in power.
What now?
The developments coincide with Bulgaria entering the Eurozone on January 1 and will trigger snap elections in early 2026, the seventh general elections since 2021 as the Zhelyazkov cabinet temporarily calmed down the election spiral.
In the next snap elections (that should be scheduled by President Rumen Radev in the forthcoming days), We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria would need to win a majority in order to press with the reforms they propose.
However, this is an unlikely goal for any political force since 1997 when the United Democratic Forces (now dissolved) took 52.6% of the popular vote.
If the current opposition duo secures less than 50% of the vote yet remains determined to isolate GERB, it will be forced to assemble a coalition, one that would almost certainly include parties beyond its usual pro-EU, centre-right and centre-left ideological spectrum: currently in opposition are also pro-Russia Revival, and the nationalists Unity, Moral and Honour, and Greatness.
For a complete power reversal that would also exclude current GERB partners Bulgarian Socialist Party and There’s Such a People (despite both opposition to GERB and in 2021-2022 during We Continue the Change’s first mandate), a partnership with some of the EU-skeptic parties would be needed out of necessity. This means that the pro-EU opposition might risk paving the way for the pro-Russia one.
Although foreign media have often highlighted that it is “the Rossen Zhelyazkov cabinet” that has resigned, the Prime Minister himself has rarely been addressed by the protesters.
He has largely remained in the shadow of GERB leader Boyko Borissov, who continues to be the party’s most vocal and recognizable figure. Zhelyazkov’s calmer, more diplomatic tone has also contrasted sharply with the often rude and dismissive attitude displayed by Borissov and Peevski toward their opponents or to the media. Whether Zhelyazkov will grow under the spotlight as a fresher face for the party – paradoxically after the fall of his cabinet – or fade in obscurity, will likely be seen in the next months.
Despite longstanding expectations that pro-Kremlin President Rumen Radev will initiate a political project of his own, such a move is unlikely until his mandate expires by the end of 2026, meaning that Bulgaria’s political landscape will also be shaped by the Presidential elections.
On the previous mass protests from 2020-2021 Radev and Borissov were in an open conflict and Radev supported the launching of We Continue the Change as key figures were interim ministers; by 2025, the President has been largely neutral to Borissov and occasionally critical to We Continue the Change especially on the topic of their support to Ukraine.
How Radev, who often calibrates his rhetoric to the political moment, will ultimately align his ambitions remains unclear.
