Pro-Russian party enters Bulgaria's parliament after election recount
Photo: The pro-Russian Velichie party entered the Bulgarian parliament (flickr com swiv)
Members of the pro-Russian Velichie party have entered Bulgaria's parliament following a partial recount of the election results, Reuters reports.
The Bulgarian parliamentary elections were held in October 2024, but the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria ordered a review of the results after a complaint from the Velichie party. The political group holds pro-Russian views and opposes aid to Ukraine.
In October, the Velichie party failed to achieve the 4% threshold required to enter parliament, falling short by just a few votes. However, after a partial recount, the party successfully secured representation in parliament, winning 10 seats. An additional six seats were redistributed among four smaller parties.
The ruling coalition, led by the center-right GERB party, lost five seats but still managed to hang on to a razor-thin majority - 121 seats out of 240.
The Constitutional Court rejected calls for a full recount of the election results.
According to Reuters, this situation has further deepened the political uncertainty in Bulgaria, a country that has struggled for years to form a stable government or majority coalition.
Tensions between Ukraine and Bulgaria
In January 2025, a diplomatic conflict erupted between Ukraine and Bulgaria following remarks by Kostadin Kostadinov, the leader of the Vazrazhdane (Revival) pro-Russian Bulgarian party. He claimed that Bulgarians make up the majority of the population in Southern Bessarabia (the southern part of Ukraine's Odesa region) and therefore, supposedly, "there is nothing more logical than returning the region back to Bulgaria."
The Embassy of Ukraine in Bulgaria condemned such calls by Kostadinov.
