Bulgarien stimmt als pro-russischer ehemaliger Präsident, der die Umfragen anführt

Another election in Bulgaria, and the pro russian former president Rumen Radev is leading the polls again. This could mean even more gridlock and closer ties with Moscow, Bulgaria really can’t catch a break.

Feels exhausting, honestly, like being stuck on repeat. One small thing that might help is following some independent Bulgarian outlets or analysts to get nuance beyond “pro/anti Russia” headlines.

Bulgaria has kicked itself in the balls so many times, they don’t feel it anymore. So they are going for a sledgehammer.

„Bulgarians went to the polls on Sunday in the eighth parliamentary election in five years…“

Eight parliamentary elections in five years is not a functioning democracy. That is an absolute institutional collapse.

People reading the headline might be confused as to why an EU and NATO country is about to elect a pro-Russian populist, but the article lays it out perfectly. Bulgarians are not voting for Radev because they suddenly love Putin. They are voting for him because the pro-Western establishment is so comically corrupt that one of the runner up political leaders (Delyan Peevski) is literally sanctioned by the US and the UK for rampant graft.

When your only choices are a pro-Russian populist or a guy officially blacklisted for stealing state funds, the voters are just going to pick whoever promises stability.

But the most ironic part of this whole thing is Radev campaigning as the „anti-corruption“ candidate. As the article points out, his own handpicked interim government signed that disastrous 2023 Botas gas deal that bled the country dry. He is just another grifter wearing a different colored tie.

With Orbán finally getting ousted in Hungary, Putin is absolutely desperate for a new Trojan Horse inside the EU and NATO. It looks like he is going to exploit Bulgaria’s political exhaustion to get exactly that.

Just looked at Wikipedia. It seems as if today is the 18th national parliamentary election in Bulgaria since the fall of communism back in 1989.

Which is crazy because the people in Bulgaria now almost had as many free elections as my home country, the Federal Republic of Germany (we had 21 federal elections since 1949).

Crazy people