Multiple parties compete in Bulgaria’s democratic system, with peaceful transfers of power occurring between rival groups, though repeated snap elections have failed to produce stable governing majorities in recent years. While the media sector remains pluralistic, outlets are subject to pressure from political and business interests. Members of minority populations, particularly Roma, and the LGBT+ community face discrimination. Despite funding shortages and other obstacles, civil society organizations remain active and influential.

• Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov of the liberal We Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) alliance resigned in March, in keeping with a coalition agreement that would have handed the premiership to the center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party. However, the two partners disagreed on the makeup of the new cabinet, and in April President Rumen Radev appointed a caretaker government—with Dimitar Glavchev, head of the National Audit Office, as prime minister—and called snap parliamentary elections for June. Those elections, which drew record-low voter turnout of just 34 percent, failed to produce a viable governing majority, prompting Radev to call another round of elections for October.
• In the October voting, GERB led with 69 of 240 seats, followed by the PP-DB with 37, the far-right Revival party with 35, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms–New Beginning (DPS-NN) with 30, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) with 20, the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (APS) with 19, the right-wing populist There Is Such a People (ITN) with 18, and the far-right Morality, Unity, Honor (MECh) with 12. There were numerous reports of large-scale vote buying and fraud, with many allegations focusing on the DPS-NN and its leader, Delyan Peevski, who had previously faced US and British sanctions for corruption. Numerous last-minute changes to local election commission personnel may have contributed to malfeasance. The Constitutional Court accepted and consolidated five legal challenges seeking to overturn the results, and a ruling was pending at year’s end. Coalition talks were also ongoing, meaning Glavchev remained in place as caretaker prime minister.
• In July, the Constitutional Court struck down a number of the constitutional amendments that had been adopted by the parliament in late 2023, including changes that had divided the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) into two bodies to separately oversee judges and prosecutors, and that curbed the powers and reduced the term of the prosecutor general. These amendments had earned praise from European Commission experts.
• In August, police in the city of Pazardzhik imposed fines on two women for wearing face-covering veils. A ban on such garments, which are not common among Muslims in Bulgaria, had been imposed first by the city and then at the national level in 2016; it was rarely enforced, however, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020.
• Also in August, the parliament swiftly adopted a law proposed by the Revival party that aimed to prohibit the dissemination of “propaganda” related to “nontraditional sexual orientation” or “gender identity other than biological” in the country’s schools. Despite protests and calls for a veto, President Radev signed the legislation. Local branches of the Revival party then reportedly used social media to identify and intimidate teachers who publicly expressed disapproval of the law.

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For additional background information, see last year’s full report.