Bulgarian sovereignists strongly negate and little build in Bulgarian politics

Constantin Uzdriș, Impact Global, TVR Moldova, March 16, 2025

Constanin Uzdriș: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. We continue our series of interviews about nationalist and sovereignist currents and today we are going to Bulgaria, where we are talking to journalist Vladimir Mitev. Mr. Mitev, good day!

Vladimir Mitev: Good afternoon.

Mr. Mitev, as I was saying, we are doing this series of interviews about the nationalist and sovereignist currents that have emerged in the European Union. Bulgaria has been a member state of the European Union since 2007. Please tell me, are there such currents in the Bulgarian political spectrum as well?

Yes, obviously. First of all let’s say that the nationalist current, in a sense, existed even during socialism. Well, socialism in Bulgaria started in the 1940s rather as something internationalist, but with time it evolved. The Marxist ideology weakened and the nationalist element strengthened, and therefore in the 1980s we had what is called the Revival Process, i.e. the forced renaming of Bulgarian Turks, which was also linked to violence.

So, even within socialism there was nationalism and, of course, in the context when we were talking about post-socialism, it continued. From what I understand the term sovereignism is spreading more and more. Nationalism inside the European Union is called sovereignism, at least that is my understanding. So, yes, we have a very visible party, which has sovereignist behavior. It is called the Revival party. And there are other parties that are also of this type, but more simply, in the current context, they have rather some speakers on TV, but they don’t have so much electoral influence, whereas the Revival party is the one that is probably meant to play the role of a sovereignist party, if we can use this term for Bulgaria.

What are the main slogans and themes these parties use to attract as many sympathizers as possible?

I think the basic characteristic is a skepticism or a rejection of the mainstream, let’s say liberalism as a kind of mainstream. But the issues of concern to the Revival party have evolved and are still evolving.

For example, during the Covid pandemic, of course, the anti-vax movement was somehow seen as being close to and supported by this party.

Then we had a period between 2022-2024, but right up until the beginning of this year, when we had a series of interim governments. And then much of the rhetoric of the Revival party was directed against the American embassy. A discourse was created, supported by the public representatives of the party, that the American embassy would decide everything in Bulgaria, all the other parties would be slaves to the American embassy and so on.

Then when it was seen that Trump was rising in the United States, when it was already the election campaign for the elections that ended in November 2024, we already saw a shift in the rhetoric and activity of the Revival party towards a certain opposition to the LGBT mainstream. Or to what is generally referred to in Bulgaria by all nationalist currents as gender ideology (and its representatives). Legislation was enacted in Parliament that put some additional limits on the discussion of sex education in schools. And there were even cases where people, linked to the Revival party, distributed on social networks a number of lists of teachers who opposed this law, which has meanwhile come into force.

So now we come to a new situation at the very beginning of this year. Bulgaria seems to be on the road to eurozone integration, of course, if it gets a positive convergence report. And this has very strongly activated the Revival party, which is opposed to joining the eurozone. They tried to have a referendum which failed to take place. In the sense not that the necessary signatures were not collected, but that its organization was not supported by the political elites.

And anyway, we recently had a situation where members and activists of the Revival party, including an MEP of this party, attacked the so-called House of Europe. In other words, they attacked the European Union representation, or rather the representation of the European Commission and the European Parliament in Sofia. There was damage, policemen were injured. 

So, the rhetoric keeps changing, but it’s always a kind of negation. Negation of what is either mainstream, liberal or pro-European Union trend.

And one last question. We know that Bulgaria has gone through a lot of political crises lately, with a lot of early elections. You mentioned interim governments. Are these political forces contributing to the destabilization of Bulgaria from within?

If I have to talk about destabilization, of course, the situation where the representation of the European Commission and the European Parliament in Sofia is vandalized or attacked does not do credit to Bulgaria, it increases tensions in society and damages the image of the country outside its borders.

But there is more. I believe that in Bulgaria it is not just these parties that are to blame for the problems. I mean there are structural things that cause problems in Bulgaria.

The fact that many institutions don’t work together and they are kind of smaller or bigger “states”. We had just this week a situation where the ability of the Bulgarian state to correctly count the votes cast in the parliamentary elections was questioned, because there was such a problem. And we saw again that different institutions represented and different leaders are fighting each other very hard, as if they don’t belong to one state. So I would rather say that the tensions created by the sovereignist current make the situation more difficult, because in my opinion Bulgaria’s problems in politics are structural ones and not only related to sovereignism.

I hope that sovereignism could also have the balancing effect in some senses. But the problems are more serious. The role of the Renaissance party so far is, unfortunately, rather to deny, to provoke quarrels, to create strife, and I would like if in time the Renaissance party will start to play a more balanced role, where it will also have an expert input, more constructive, in short.

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In the studio

Constantin Uzdriș: Mihai, do you know Bulgaria? How much influence, how much do these sovereignist trends affect this country?

Mihai Isac: Unfortunately, due to the difficult economic situation in the Balkan region, the war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the related economic pressures, the so-called sovereignist movement has grown a lot in Bulgaria. Bulgaria has a special relationship with the Russian sphere of influence and is fertile ground for the consolidation of these sovereignist forces.

I just want to draw attention to how Bulgaria is becoming a platform for Russian Federation activity against the Republic of Moldova. The Revival Party, about which Mr. Mitev spoke very well, has an agreement with the party of a similar name in the Republic of Moldova, which is known as a vehicle for oligarchic interests.

Also, let us not forget that the leader of the Revival Party has even threatened the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, trying to threaten to annex the southern region of Bessarabia. Of course, I guess that they should annex Romanian Dobruja as well in order to be able to reach South Bessarabia more easily. Unfortunately, I saw that the Romanian sovereignists also have relations with them.

Mihai, thank you for this explanation and we look forward to seeing you next week on Impact Global. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us. We invite you to continue to stay with Romanian Television, to stay with TVR Moldova. Good bye!

Photo: The House of Europe in Sofia after the onslaught of the protesters from Revival party, 22 February 2025 (source: YouTube)

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