Earlier this year, I was honored to contribute to a special issue of New Eastern Europe focusing on the global shifts of power and turbulence under Russian influence. My article analyses the peculiar rise of the “Revival” party (Vazrazhdane) in Bulgaria and its implications.

From an underdog with merely 37,896 votes in the 2017 parliamentary election, Bulgaria’s Revival party (Vazrazhdane) has managed to gain 358,174 votes in the 2023 election and to secure itself 37 seats in the country’s 240-seat parliament. Its meteoritic rise is often used as an argument justifying the shameful union between the reformists (PPDB) and the establishment (GERB; DPS) in Bulgaria which, in turn, resulted in the election of Nikolay Denkov’s government in 2023. The marriage of convenience between PPDB, GERB, and DPS, which emerged in 2023, is presented as a Euro-Atlantic micro alliance protecting Bulgaria from the malicious influence of Vladimir Putin’s circles allegedly channelled by Revival – an account that feeds into the current dominant geopolitical narrative.

“Revival” present themselves as “the only patriotic party” in Bulgaria. However, a review of their public discourse uncovers a rather disturbing fabric of their patriotism – a strange mix of anti-NATO rhetoric, unrefined populism, xenophobia, and profanity. Their sudden electoral success, however, raises many suspicions. Namely, they seem to be a project of the Bulgarian establishment.

I conclude:

Overall, if PPDB have been used as a fig leaf for GERB’s and DPS’s corruption, Revival are its walking stick when the road gets muddy at home. From a macro perspective, this far-right party is the byproduct of the rule of law decay in Bulgaria. It is designed to take advantage of the votes of the angry and marginalized from the system and to benefit the establishment which is responsible for conditioning the grim socio-economic reality in Bulgaria which is the source of their rage to begin with. It is the ultimate illustration of the extent to which the establishment does not want to let go of power because, alternatively, its prominent faces will have to face consequences in law for their corruption and other alleged crimes.

Revival’s rhetoric may be disturbing, but there is something much more sinister in the picture of Bulgaria’s political landscape that emerges – the ability of the establishment to reinvent itself and to trick voters into its next socio-political experiment. Thirty-five years after the fall of communism, the same chicanery continues to bear fruit.

You can read my full article here.