Pro-Western protesters are once again taking it to the streets in Bulgaria, targeting the ruling-GERB establishment, much like they did in 2013 – 2014 and 2020 – 2021, but also at the pro-Russian and nationalistic parties that support the GERB government – the Socialist Party and There is Such a People. Although the previous waves of protests ultimately failed, as GERB returned to power following a three year cycle of snap elections between 2021 and 2023, the protesters seem determined to keep up the pressure and they even plan to expand their demonstrations in the fall.
Pro-Western Bulgarians thus seem to shake off the political apathy they fell into as the snap-elections cycle ended.
Protests erupted as GERB is initiating a vendetta on the opposition
Even before the start of the current pro-Western protests (which have a strong pro-reform and anti-corruption streak), various groups organized their own protests.
Some – many of them supporters of the pro-Russia far-right force Revival – took to the streets to oppose Bulgaria’s adoption of the euro currency in 2026.
There was also a strike from public transport drivers, which caused a week-long standstill of much of Sofia’s public transport network. The strike ended after GERB made a sudden offer to the unions to increase the wages with means from the state budget. The Sofia public transport is paid for by the city, but mayor Vassil Terziev (affiliated to the opposition We Continue the Change) did not have a budget to increase salaries. It was alleged that GERB was behind the drivers’ strike, as the party wanted to create and then solve a problem to its advantage – that is, to increase its chances to take back Sofia at the next local elections; Terziev is the man who, back in 2023, put an end to GERB’s control of the city.
Young medics have been regularly protesting for better professional perspectives and better wages, and journalists from state media (mainly the national radio and TV) also protested asking for better wages but their actions were short-lived and left without a political reaction.
Crowds numbering from several hundred to several thousands also took to the streets to protest cases of animal brutality, violence on children and violence on women.
What brought pro-Westerners to the streets was the arrest of the Varna mayor Blagomir Kotzev, who is affiliated with the reformist We Continue the Change party. Kotzev was taken into custody on the evening of July 8, and as of today he is still in detention.
Kotzev had become mayor in 2023, after beating in the elections the incumbent Ivan Portnih, a GERB politician who had been at the helm of Varna for a decade.
The Prosecution and the anti-corruption commission acted on allegations that Kotsev and other municipal associates sought a bribe to greenlight a public procurement filed by a catering company. The allegations were made by an owner of the catering company, a man who had worked regularly with the previous administration. Representatives of the We Continue the Change party claimed that the allegations are trumped and plan to sue the owner for defamation. Evidence for the wrongdoing is yet to be publicly presented in any form.
Protests in support of Kotsev and against the actions by the Prosecution, seen as political repression, started in Varna and Sofia, and are ongoing. As the events in Varna are much more centered around the mayor as a figure suffering oppression, protests in Sofia have a broader rhetoric, targeting the spider-web of influences between GERB’s Boyko Borissov, oligarch Delyan Peevski (sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act and boss of new party called New Beginning), and current General Prosecutor Borislav Sarafov, seen as acting on their side.
More unrest to follow in the fall
One common trait between the large-scale protest waves is also that there’s always an ecological layer – the 2013-2014 wave was preceded by protests against overconstruction on the Vitosha mountain in 2012, the 2020-2021 wave was preceded by actions against expanded resort plans in the Pirin mountain as well as increased commercial building on the Black Sea coast.
As the general anti-establishment protest is going on, July ended with protests in the capital against Bulgaria’s limited capabilities to confront wildfires. After a particularly devastating last summer (a record 170,000 acres damaged in 2024), Bulgaria’s current government made certain inquisitions but not enough to meet the wildfire response strategy drafted by the Ministry of Defence and didn’t greenlight a previous budget for planned improvements from the We Continue the Change-led cabinet in 2023-2024. As of July 30, there are 139 active fires across the country, with six helicopters flying from Romania and two planes from Sweden to add to emergency response.
Another issue is also likely to cause social action. Before the beginning of the school year in the middle of September, there is already a protest announced on September 10 against plans – initiated from the GERB-affiliated Minister of Education and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church – to increase religion lessons in the school system as a way to make children "good people" and promote “goodwill”. Or in the words of Bulgaria Patriarch Daniil back in March, “protect children from fake news about the faith”. This has raised worries among some citizens and education experts about the type of views such classes might promote, including infiltration of Russian propaganda. Details of a recent discussion session from July 29 at the parliament regarding how the program should be rolled out, included attacks on NGO and private education organizations, as well as references to the Darwin theory as a “atheistic communist propaganda” – raising further fears about the conservative angle under which the education experts next to the government are drafting the strategy.
Protests thus will likely continue into the fall. So far, attendance has been in the thousands and it’s yet to be seen how big the protests can become and whether the cabinet will see them as a threat or merely a mild disturbance. In contrast to the waves from 2013-2014 and 2020-2021, the current one is much more politically branded as it concerns members of We Continue the Change, a party that has lost some of its popularity amid a widespread feeling that it lost some of the potential it had when it was established back in 2021. A short-lived cabinet with opponents GERB in 2023-2024 didn’t help to boost the party, nor did internal conflicts that ended with a number of members leavings.
The current protests hold the potential to both prolong the life and the relevancy of the current opposition leaders or become their last big action before the pro-Western camp disintegrates.
