The government of Rosen Zhelyazkov is a bridge to all
Boyko Borissov is again at the centre of the Bulgarian political system. All roads pass through him. The broad support for the government is a chance for legislation and reforms – but it faces difficulties as well.
The formation of new Bulgarian government has been accompanied in the Romanian media, in part, by comments that Bulgaria is yet another country in the region that is joining the group of countries led by Hungary and Slovakia that have a pro-Russian orientation. Thus, the interpretations about Bulgaria have entered into the popular cliché in Romania that Bulgarians are inherently Russophiles, without taking into account that the country is part of NATO and the EU or that there are other influential geopolitical vectors in its politics.
With this text, I try to suggest some guidelines that would allow looking at Bulgarian politics and society beyond the standard two-dimensional coordinate axis with two ends – West and East, and a constant pendulum-type movement between them. At this stage, I find more convincing a paradigm in which there are many more internal contradictions in the country, but also an aspiration for renewal, which, however, is often hindered by the fragmentation and polarisation of Bulgarian society. In such a situation, I hope that Bulgaria’s neighbours in the EU, and countries in the region in general, will in time begin to cast less aspersions on the Bulgarians because of their alleged “awkward” foreign policy ties, and will increasingly gain the understanding and the tools to connect transformatively with the Bulgarians. I don’t believe anyone is inherently Western or Eastern in their beliefs or essence – we live in a real world with specific problems whose solutions point us in one direction or another.
In fact, the new government of Rosen Zhelyazkov follows a classic formula for the Bulgarian state to be a bridge between different national and international forces.
There are both ministers who come from the NGO sector (an example in this respect is Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev, who is career-linked with the Open Society Foundation, but also Interior Minister Daniel Mitov, who was executive director of the Democracy Foundation), and representatives of populist parties (a classic example in this respect is “There is such a people”, but the Bulgarian Socialist Party also relied until recently on “conservative-left”, Orbanist ideology). The leader of the main party in it – GERB-SDS – Boyko Borissov, is on excellent terms, both with the President of the European Commission, and with the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, not to mention Recep Erdogan. In parliament, the government enjoys the support of some political currents among the Bulgarian Turks. And although some politicians from the Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left have a Russophile profile, the government says it will continue to fulfil its commitments to Ukraine.
All these and other signs testify that the Zhelyazkov government is trying to be nice to everyone. And this is not only because the archetype of the modern Bulgarian state is a bridge (and we can see this archetype in all recent stable cabinets – from Borisov 3, through Petkov to Denkov/Gabriel).
For years the Bulgarian state has needed reform and modernisation, for which it needs broad support. But the transitional period the world was in after the war in Ukraine and during the war in the Middle East made it difficult for the Bulgarian political elite to find a consensus on how to adjust to the political winds blowing in the region and the world. This has caused long periods of caretaker governments in recent years. After the US, British and other elections passed, the Bulgarian political elites found the formula of the Zhelyazkov cabinet.
The Zhelyazkov cabinet – composition and intentions
Like the Petkov cabinet (December 2020 – August 2021), Rosen Zhelyazkov’s government contains small parties that often create conflicts around themselves. So it can easily be modified if necessary or simply fall apart if a new major dividing line arises in international relations. The likelihood of greater tensions between the US and the EU leads to growing insecurity in the region – and it could force changes in the Zhelyazkov government.
The Zhelyazkov cabinet has vectors in different directions, precisely because stability is needed so that reforms can be implemented and legislation passed after a long period of gridlock in the state and its administration. At the formation of the government in parliament, Rosen Zhelyazkov himself said that the government programme would be ready in a month – i.e. in mid-February. He only briefly outlined some of the political highlights of his cabinet.
One of them is joining the eurozone. Bulgaria is close to meeting the last requirement for joining the euro area – the price level.
In Zhelyazkov’s words, the government will prioritise the quality of life of the people with a focus on education, healthcare and the development of the labour market. Among the important tasks he added ensuring the rule of law, sustainable finances, a balanced budget, as well as accelerating the implementation of the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan, coordinated family policies, a sustained increase in investment in research and innovation with an ambition to reach 2% of GDP.
Zhelyazkov also outlined as important tasks the guarantee of energy security as well as national security through the modernisation of the Bulgarian army and the enhancement of defence capabilities, active actions to expand the European space with the Western Balkans, decisive actions to tackle the crisis of waterlessness and guaranteeing access to drinking water in the affected areas.
Crises and incidents greet the government in its first weeks
Two weeks after Rosen Zhelyazkov and his government took office, the difficulties in its activities are already visible. It had to present a mini-legislative programme for parliament to work on until the announcement of the government’s full programme in mid-February. But so far this has not happened.
There are suspicions that the 2025 budget is looking at a 9% deficit, so the draft budget has been withdrawn from discussions and will be presented in an updated version probably in mid-February 2025.
In foreign policy terms, Bulgaria has resolved (with the help of Middle Eastern mediators) the crisis with its Houthi hostage sailors. But a new international scandal arose after the Bulgarian ship Vezhen was detained by Sweden on suspicion of committing an act of sabotage by severing an international cable in the Baltic Sea. Eventually the Swedish prosecutors didn’t formulate accusations and let the ship leave for the open sea.
These and other crises show that the Zhelyazkov government’s task will be difficult. It may have parliamentary support. But it is clearly difficult to stack the various political tendencies and drive the state machinery, after the administration was in a semi-stasis for a long time during Dimitar Glavchev’s caretaker government.
Borissov is back with great force in Bulgaria’s political system
Since 2020, when anti-corruption protests erupted against the stableocracy of Boyko Borissov and influential businessman and politician Delyan Peevski, Bulgarian society has theoretically been making attempts to modernise its social model. An influential anti-corruption trend has emerged in Bulgarian politics, represented by the We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria formations. Although they ruled during the Petkov (December 2021-August 2022) and Denkov (June 2023-April 2024) cabinets, the reforms they carried out were not significant. The balances in the judiciary do not appear to have changed. The constitutional changes that saw anti-corruption parties rule in collaboration with those they considered symbols of corruption, Borissov and Peevski, were criticised for the difficulties they created in finding a prime minister for a caretaker government and were partially overturned by the Constitutional Court.
Ultimately, the politicians of these parties themselves never articulated a clear vision of what exactly “change” means in Bulgarian conditions after the fall of the Borisov 3 government. Currently, prominent cadres of the anti-corruption parties are accused by the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office – the former prime minister and leader of We Continue the Change Kiril Petkov in connection with the illegal arrest of Boyko Borissov, and his former chief of staff Lena Borislavova for document crimes.
Indeed, in recent years, Bulgarians’ salaries and pensions have been rising. But the societal model is still extremely dominated by people and groups with financial resources. Unlike Romania, Bulgarian society is almost devoid of grassroots organisations and social movements. That is, change from the bottom up is not encouraged and cannot happen, not least because many people find it pointless to develop civic activity. They believe that the only change can come from access to certain political or financial power. That reinforces the belief that in Bulgaria change can only come from the top down, from the people and structures with power resources.
In this context, since 2020, the Bulgarian political wheel of fortune has come full circle. And now again Boyko Borissov is at the centre of the political system, on good terms with everyone. And again he is the European face of Bulgaria, since during the European elections in 2024, Ursula von der Leyen herself came to Plovdiv to express support for him and to receive support from him.
During Trump’s first term, Borissov managed to win his favour through a military order for 8 F-16 Block 70 fighter jets. The first of these fighters was handed over to Bulgaria on 31 January 2025.
In the new era of Trump, Borissov’s talent for being on good terms with everyone will certainly benefit the Bulgarian state. But it still faces the challenges of modernization and reform, not just managing an aging status quo.
Hypotheses for knowing and understanding the Bulgarian rebus
In this context, it would be great if the Romanian interest in Bulgaria and Bulgarians were better able to identify the forces that can transform Bulgarian social reality for good, and to connect with them. It is not possible for every attempt to change the citizens of Bulgarian society to be tamed forever by the well-entrenched interests within it. It is logical that over time it evolves towards greater complexity. And to unravel it will require concepts and language to name the realities.
The government of Rosen Zhelyazkov is an opportunity to observe and read this “complexity” or “ambiguity”. And these are not just Bulgarian phenomena in the age of Trump. Romanian politics is also beginning to be filled with bridge people. Presidential candidate Crin Antonescu is the husband of a former Romanian EU commissioner, but he has also historically been an ally of the face of sovereigntism in the Social Democratic Party, Victor Ponta. Another presidential candidate, Nicusor Dan, comes from NGO circles, but by his own statements and actions has nothing conservative in his views – for example, he has long put off getting the COVID vaccine.
So the phenomenon of politicians or government-bridges is not something exclusively Bulgarian. The challenge is to see in them the potential for new experience, not the status quo from which we want to break away.
Will Rosen Zhelyazkov give us a chance to see in him something more than “GERB with a human face”? What we will see also depends on our ability not to see the world as black and white, but to read the shades of grey.
This text has been first published in Romanian on the site 1848. Comunitatea Liberala.
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