Thousands protest in Bulgaria to call for fair vote as the country seems headed to an early election

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Thousands of people braved freezing weather to protest in Bulgaria’s capital on Wednesday, calling for a fair election as the Balkan country appears to be headed to its eighth vote in the last five years.

The demonstration in Sofia came after last month’s protests, which were sparked by attempts by the governing coalition to introduce a budget that Bulgarians — already struggling with rising prices — feared would add to their woes.

The government later withdrew the contentious 2026 budget plan, but the protesters’ demands had expanded to include calls for the center-right government to step down.

Protesters insisted on a fair election free of vote manipulation, vote buying and falsification of results as in previous campaigns. They claimed that the refusal of the outgoing government to introduce machine voting for a possible early election is another attempt to tamper with the result.

At the core of the protesters’ frustrations is the role of Bulgarian politician and oligarch Delyan Peevski, who has been under U.S. and U.K. sanctions, and whose MRF New Beginning party has repeatedly backed the outgoing coalition led by the GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

The Balkan country of 6.4 million people, which joined the European Union in 2007, made the switch from its national currency, the lev, to the euro currency on Jan. 1 to become the eurozone’s 21st member.

But deep rifts in society have led to a series of successive elections that failed to produce a stable government able to steer Bulgaria out of political crisis.

President Rumen Radev already offered the two biggest groups in parliament the chance to form a new government, but both failed. Now, the president will choose a candidate and if this move doesn’t succeed, he will appoint a caretaker Cabinet until a new election is held.