Poll finds serious decreases in approval ratings of Bulgarian PM Radev and his government
The approval ratings of Bulgarian Prime Minister Roumen Radev and his government have dropped seriously in the two months since taking office, according to a poll by the Market Links agency, the results of which were released on July 23.
In May, Radev had an approval rating of 56 per cent and a disapproval rating of 22 per cent, but now his approval rating is 50 per cent and his disapproval rating 33 per cent.
When it took office, the Cabinet’s approval rating was 50 per cent and its disapproval rating 24 per cent, but now its approval rating is 42 per cent and its disapproval rating 35 per cent.
This no longer looks like a random outburst, but like a trend that has persisted for the second consecutive month and may prove difficult to reverse, Market Links’s Dobromir Zhivkov told bTV on July 23.
According to Zhivkov, Radev still has a very serious amount of public trust, but the disappointment is coming very early.
“Expectations were extremely high and the failure to respond adequately led to a reversal,” Zhivkov said.
“Society is sensitive after so many years of elections, there are mature expectations of what should happen in Bulgarian politics. When this does not register, the reaction is very visible,” he said.
The main reason for the loss of trust are the internal political actions and inactions of the authorities.
The controversial proposed Budget 2026 is just one of the reasons.
The big talk about fighting “the model” gradually receded, Zhivkov said.
“The only things we hear from the Interior Ministry are campaigning and directed against certain political figures, not against the entire model as a whole,” he said.
“There is no talk of restoring the autonomy of the institutions, but of who we will find out what and what accusation we will raise against him. This is not a systematic approach and a decisive struggle,” he said.
The foreign policy ambiguities of the Radev cabinet are the second important element – with the series of inconsistent moves on the topic of Russia and Ukraine, which Zhivkov compared to a “geopolitical slalom”.
“We can assume that the government has a desire to maintain a good image in front of the electorate, but not to lose the partnership relations in the EU and the US. At every moment, it acts reactively and situationally, there is a feeling of a lack of a clear position that can be maintained,” he said.
This is also seen in the overall assessment of the respondents for the Radev cabinet in the second month of government.
“The government is trying to bring order after chaos” remains the leading assessment, but fewer and fewer people agree with this explanation (35 per cent compared to 41 per cent a month ago).
At the same time, there is an increase in people who believe that the government seems unprepared (23 per cent) and that it is continuing the old model with a new face (13 per cent).
More moderate critics are also increasing – “The government makes mistakes, but it is too early to assess” (21 per cent compared to 19 per cent a month ago).
Were parliamentary elections to be held now, Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria would get 39 per cent among those who would vote, fractionally down from 39.1 per cent in the previous poll.
We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (which the pollsters counted as one although the two sit in Parliament as separate groups) has overtaken Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF to be in second place, with 14.3 per cent, compared with 11.8 per cent in the previous poll.
GERB-UDF has 12.7 per cent, down from 13.1 per cent in the previous poll, Magnitsky Act-sanctioned Delyan Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms 4.2 per cent, down from 4.9 per cent, and pro-Russian party Vuzrazhdane has 3.6 per cent, down from 4.2 per cent.
Zhivkov said that WCC-Democratic Bulgaria’s active opposition behaviour was bringing it political dividends.
The Market Links poll, done jointly with bTV, was done among 1002 adult Bulgarians from July 11 to 19 through direct interviews and online polling.
