Bulgarian President Radev’s approval rating has dropped five points since January

Bulgarian head of state President Roumen Radev continues to be the country’s politician with the relatively highest approval rating, but it has dropped five points since January, according to a poll by the Alpha Research agency, the results of which were released on July 16.

Radev had a 39 per cent approval rating and a 33 per cent disapproval rating.

“The polarisation in society and in particular, in the attitude towards his initiative for a referendum on the euro, also takes away from his credibility,” Alpha Research said.

Radev had lost approval among representatives of the private sector, liberal professions and those employed in modern industries, the poll found.

GERB-UDF leader Boiko Borissov remains the party leader with the highest trust (22.3 per cent), but with a slight retreat since January.

Borissov has an approval rating of 22.3 per cent and a disapproval rating of 51.1 per cent.

The actions against mayors and deputy mayors from We Continue the Change have as an initial result more serious damage to WCC and an increase in the importance and rating of the leaders of its coalition partner, Democratic Bulgaria – Bozhidar Bozhanov (16.5 per cent) and Ivailo Mirchev (16.3 per cent).

However, for both of them, the neutral assessments and, respectively, the degree of non-recognition are high, the agency said.

The development of the opinion of people who do not have a definite opinion about them will depend on their future positions.

The sole remaining leader of WCC – Assen Vassilev enjoys support of 11.6 per cent, which is close to what was measured in January and in all likelihood reflects the “re-mobilisation” of supporters after the successive arrests of two key representatives of the local government, Alpha Research said.

The dynamics in the ratings of the leaders of Vuzrazhdane, Mech and Velichieare also interesting, the agency said.

Kostadin Kostadinov, leader of opposition pro-Russian party Vuzrazhdane, who has positioned himself as the most radical protest spokesman, although occupying fourth position in terms of approval (14.5 per cent), is losing his January rating and is being overtaken very closely by populist-nationalist Mech leader Radostin Vassilev, who is active in social networks and focused on the “anti-elite” message (14.4 per cent).

The leaders of the two co-ruling parties, Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left leader Atanas Zafirov (10.3 per cent) and ITN leader Slavi Trifonov (12.4 per cent), either due to greater passivity, or due to disapproval by their sympathisers of their publicly expressed positions, or the absence of visible benefits from their participation in the government, are also in a slight negative trend, Alpha Research said.

As a result of the active inclusion of new structures, the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms-New Beginning, Delyan Peevski, increased his rating by one point (to 6.8 per cent), remaining the most polarizing figure. Only 17 per cent have a neutral opinion of him, which is the lowest share compared to all other leaders, even to the veteran Borissov.

Peevski has a disapproval rating of 75.7 per cent.

Alpha Research said that tt the time of the poll, there were two hotly debated topics with the potential to influence electoral attitudes towards parties from different parts of the political spectrum: what is the damage to WCC-DB as a result of the actions of the anti-corruption commission and the withdrawal of Kiril Petkov, and is there room for new political projects?

The agency said that it asked questions on both hot topics that help to understand the dynamics of electoral attitudes.

“In cases of suspicion of corruption, do the prosecutor’s office and investigative bodies work equally actively on cases related to the ruling party and the opposition?”

Only 5.9 per cent believe that such cases are investigated equally actively both among the ruling party and the opposition.

Even fewer, 1.6 per cent, claim that cases related to the ruling party are investigated more actively.

About 38.3 per cent are of the opinion that investigators are purposefully and selectively focused on the opposition.

A further 41.7 per cent are convinced that cases of major corruption are not worked on seriously neither when they affect the ruling party nor the opposition.

“This attitude also determines the extremely high, at first glance, share of voters who are ready to seek ‘new salvation’,” Alpha Research said.

To the experimental question “would they vote for a new party that is a real fighter against corruption”, 49 per cent said “yes”, 25 per cent – “no”, and the same number – “cannot say”.

Precisely because there is a sense of “game” between parties and patronage in cases of corruption, the greatest damage from individual actions is suffered not by an individual party, but by political entities as a whole, the agency said.

Like most Bulgarian governments in recent years, the current coalition is accumulating negatives over time.

Its popularity among the public is declining, with positive ratings falling to 26 per cent and negative ratings increasing to 39 per cent.

The government is firmly supported by GERB supporters and a large part of the euro zone supporters.

About 46 per cent of those surveyed believe that it is the great success of the cabinet and the country.

In this context, Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov is also in a very stable position, with trust in him increasing by six percentage points since January and currently he is one of the few politicians with a positive rating. Zhelyazkov’s approval rating is 34.1 per cent and his disapproval rating is 32.7 per cent.

Negative assessments of the government come from two sources – from opponents of joining the euro zone with their fears of rising prices and from the state’s failure to begin overcoming systematically unresolved problems – in healthcare, the social sphere with the revealed “houses of horrors”, infrastructure, war on the roads, aggression by and between minors, and so on.

The “houses of horrors” refers to illegal nursing homes for the elderly, with appalling conditions, that have been found in recent weeks.

The Prime Minister has capital that could consolidate trust in the government, but this cannot be done without results in individual policies, Alpha Research said.

The continuing huge division in society is also evident in the negative rating of the National Assembly (eight per cent approval: 69 per cent disapproval), which is lower than the share of supporters of the parties supporting the government.

“The feeling of a lack of representation and protection of interests even by those for whom people voted is a serious risk to the reputation of the country’s supreme body,” the agency said.

The poll was done from July 7 to 14 2025 and is part of regular polling by Alpha Research. It has been published on the agency’s website and was carried out using the agency’s own funds. The poll was done among 1000 adult citizens from all over the country. A stratified two-stage sample with a quota according to the main socio-demographic characteristics was used. The information was collected through a direct standardised interview with tablets at the homes of the respondents.

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