RUSSIA'S MIXED FORTUNES (PART II)
- Paul Hansbury
- Apr 30
- 4 min read
The election in Hungary dealt a blow to Russia, though the result in Bulgaria's election a week later was, in the words of the Kremlin's spokesperson, 'encouraging'. Perhaps the most interesting test of Russia's influence in central and eastern Europe will come next year, however, in Slovakia.
The victor in Bulgaria's parliamentary election on 19 April was Rumen Radev, a populist who is critical of the European Union's policies on Russia and Ukraine. His Progressive Bulgaria coalition won 45% of the vote, which translates into 131 of the 250 seats in the parliament.
It is the first time since the 1990s that an electoral coalition has won a clear mandate to rule in Bulgaria. In recent years, Bulgaria has seen minority government after minority government collapse; it held three parliamentary elections in 2021, one in each of 2022 and 2023, and two in 2024. The new government has a better chance of lasting a full term, given its strong electoral mandate, although no one should be too confident.
