Bulgaria’s 2026 Presidential elections: Democratic Bulgaria, WCC see Yotova’s result as indictment of Radev government

The first-round results in Bulgaria’s 2026 presidential elections amount to an indictment of President Roumen Radev’s government, in the view of the leaders of opposition groups Democratic Bulgaria and We Continue the Change (WCC).

In the October 25 vote, President Iliana Yotova, who has the stated support of Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria, ended only marginally ahead of former prime minister Andrei Gyurov, backed by Democratic Bulgaria and WCC.

Opinion polls showed that 900 000 of those who had voted for Radev’s party in Bulgaria’s April 2026 early parliamentary elections, propelling it to decisive victory, had not come out on October 25 to vote for Yotova.

Yotova and Gyurov will face off on November 1 in a second-round election.

Democratic Bulgaria co-leader Bozhidar Bozhanov told Bulgarian National Television on October 26: “The campaign began with a 25 per cent gap and ended with a 2.5 per cent gap” – a reference to opinion polls on support for the candidates.

“This is only the first half; a very important week lies ahead. Yotova ran a highly divisive campaign based on lies,” Bozhanov said.

“First, there was a claim that someone was supposedly fighting against the Cyrillic alphabet, and yesterday, Yotova declared that she would not allow foreign flags to be flown on the streets. She is constantly inventing enemies. This is not a campaign; fear is not a sufficient motivator—but the government’s failure regarding prices certainly is,” he said.

According to Bozhanov, in spite of a concerningly low voter turnout, Gyurov managed to expand his support by tens of thousands of votes beyond the total received by DB and WCC in the most recent parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile, Yotova’s vote count plummeted by nearly one million compared to the votes received by Progressive Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Socialist Party in April 2026, Bozhanov said.

“There are two main factors for this: the failure of those in power to combat the oligarchy and high prices. As a result, some voters are returning to political formations they have supported in the past. We see this trend with DB, PP, Mech, Vuzrazhdane, and so on,” he said.

According to Bozhanov, the upcoming debate will influence the runoff. “We hope that this time, Iliana Yotova will accept the invitation to debate.”

This was a reference to a stated intention for the two candidates in the second round to meet for a debate on October 29 on Bulgarian National Television. As of October 26, the programme for October 29 on the station’s website does not include a debate.

In the second round, Gyurov will seek the votes of all Bulgarian citizens, Bozhanov said.

Presidential elections should not be the subject of backroom deals between parties—voters are not serfs belonging to any party, and they will make their own choices, he said.

“Gyurov did not seek support from party headquarters for the first round of the election, and he will not do so for the runoff either. The process actually worked the other way around: our voters—acting through the parties that represent them politically—requested that we support the candidacy of Gyurov and Kandev. It was an organic process, free from any hidden agreements,” Bozhdanov said.

WCC leader Assen Vassilev said that the election result of the presidential vote and the record low voter turnout were an assessment of the Progressive Bulgaria government.

“I expected the difference to be much smaller than the sociological agencies gave in the latest surveys before the vote. I did not expect such an outflow from Progressive Bulgaria. Nearly 900 000 people gave a red card to Roumen Radev’s government,” Vassilev said.

“Ms. Yotova said she was for peace. Who is not for peace? But for there to be peace, we must be prepared. And have clear messages to those who do not want peace,” Vassilev said regarding the incumbent president’s announcement that before the second round she would want “not foreign flags, but Bulgarian flags to be flown in Bulgarian cities.”

Vassilev said that “non-Bulgarian” are all the flags other than the national flag and that of the European Union and Nato.

(Photo montage: Bozhanov and Vassilev, from their respective parties’ websites)