Bulgaria's pro-Russian former president set for landslide win, exit polls show

Bulgaria doesn't want to make waves because they have their internal problems and EU doesnt bother them as long as it doesnt interfere with EU policy the guy running this party has been president of Bulgaria for the past 8 years and the party went mainly on a no corruption speech, yes, they are pro russian, but also they dont want out of EU. Ffs, they had their leva anchored on the Euro for 25 years, and now they have euro and are in Schengen, plus all EU money that enter the country every year, why bother? not to mention, those actually running the country have many lucrative businesses in EU, not in Russia. As long as that is not disturbed, Bulgaria as a whole is pro EU

There is a joke - we are corrupt, not stupid.

The new internal minister has definately done a great job. Yes, it is an appointed cabinet, but over the course of about 3 months it has battled corruption astonishingly well. They managed to capture over 1 million euros which would be used to buy votes - over 300 times the amount seized by the previous appointed cabinet. The country overall feels safer now and the elections, for probably the first time over 2 decades have really seemed honest here.

Nicaragua “borders that warzone by sea” too.

but that last statement implies there should be decent number of candidates, clearly not since a pro-Russian dude is projected to win a landslide. unless you're suggesting that he is the only one who "made noise" since no one else has a decent chance at winning. My conjecture is that Moscow saw the writing on the wall for Hungary and injected all their efforts at creating a new partner in the EU, Bulgaria.

Then why haven't someone sane made enough noise?

Poland is thinking of putting a Russian stooge in charge, after you've just built the biggest army in Europe? And with the Baltics sweating over a potential invasion in the next decade? Well... that's worrying...

They have mixed feelings due to the corruption in the country telling them that the EU is responsible for everything that's bad.

At the expense? The money is going to eastern Europe and not coming back at all.

Yes, and no...Ruzzia is investing everywhere they can to manipulate, in Bulgaria is "official secret".

They can leave the EU if they don’t like it. Many in the EU opposed Bulgaria ever becoming part of the bloc anyhow…

This doesn't mean anything. Bulgaria is in NATO, and he's a general. So? In fact, he's always been pro Russia in his stance.He also said that giving NATO Bulgaria's air space for defence is pathetic. Now, the first thing he did after winning the rigged election was to say that Europe needs to come to their senses and seek talks with Russia, something that the Kremlin eagerly agreed to.

Much better fashion sense than us straights, I'll tell you what.

Eastern Europe as a whole is a very bigoted place unfortunately

Of course they are, I'm talking about the culture itself. Bulgarians see themselves much closer to Russia in culture than western countries

Good, when are we sending NATO to stop Israel?

I'm american,  and i assure you that isnt forgotten. 

It is truly insane how fast they throw away their own principles. It is incomprehensible.

Comparing Russia where putin has overwhelming favorability to the US where Trump wins by 1.5% and doesn’t even have a majority is so funny. China doesn’t even have real elections. Are you guys stupid?

Anything other thsn the US being responsible, I guess. The US is compromised because all its checks and balances failed to do anything. Trump would be gone tomorow if congress grew a pair. Thats not on anyone else but them.

I'm sorry what

Or willing participants. 

I kind of wish the EU won't deal with the Russia problem by adopting Russia's problems.

44% gives him a majority. he doesn't have to win 50% of the vote, he need 121 seats, which with current estimates, he has 140, so he don't need coalition at all. The only coalition is needed for changes in the Jurisdiction system (160 seats)

I hope for the best, for EU! We need to stay together!

GERB losing is indeed a good thing, but I doubt that we will see any change in corruption in the government... I just want to remind you how the situation was when GERB first came into power.: They also ran on an anti-corruption campaign. The situation back then was atrocious. Infrastructure was falling apart. All EU funds were stopped due to the rampant corruption from the previous government. On a low level, corruption was also absolutely horrible as well: you got to pay 10-20 leva everytime the police stopped you so they drop a fine; if you needed a document or anything from the local administration you had to bribe the person in front of you. And so much more... Many people voted for GERB despite knowing that Boiko is involved in organized crime. It was just that any change seemed better than no change. Unfortunately, the structures that people were willing to vote out at any cost back then, are the ones that just regained power. Let's hope, they are less greedy this time around. By the way, GERB did deliver on their initial promises. Low level corruption was quickly curbed down, EU funds were reopened, highways were built, streets and city centers were fixed. It's just that they created a structure in which all government spending was funneled in a way that benefits "one of their guys". Later on, we also got all the fun anti-democratic restructuring of the country in an attempt to consolidate their power, when people stopped being content with just "not all the money gets stolen".

For last couple of years /5/ we vote like 8 times or something. Now we have leader. Radev don’t want to go out of EU, NATO or bring back the bulgarian currency/lev/. He is military pilot. He take lessons in USA, Germany and so… He is probably the first leader here who can speak several languages!! Russia - likes him? Probably. This doesn’t mean anything. 1 500 000 people vote for him from 3 000 000. I really hope to have strong leader!

Well, you have to respect our vote and our opinion. We are a full member state of the EU and have the right to elections and to elect whoever we deem good for us and our country. Our top priority is NOT Ukraine but our own country- Bulgaria. Sorry, not sorry. Maybe if you have some party that promises to kick Bulgaria out of the EU, you could vote for that. Until then, you are welcome to get angry on Listnook, but you have to accept the reality and respect our choice -- for us, priority is our inside issues and economic reality, and not some ideological hate towards Russia, which is just not popular in our country and never will be. We voted against two severely corrupt pro-EU parties and against a liberal hawkish party, because we do not see them as beneficial for Bulgaria. Most of us are interested ONLY in 1. the rule of law and strong institutions 2. Pro-EU party 3. balanced relationship with Russia, we are not interested in a party that prioritizes Ukraine over Bulgaria. Thus, the results -- 45% support for Progressive Bulgaria and Radev. BTW, we do not have a strongly anti-Russian party, except for PPDB, the liberal party. Even GERB, for many years, had a pragmatic relationship with Russia and Turkey, and was forced to follow the imposed sanctions, but still did not like it. Today, GERB's leader, Boyko Borisov, said: "We also want cheaper energy, but what can we do with the sanctions? We have to be loyal to Brussels". So it's not like this SOB mafioso gives a shit about Ukraine and Russia; he is just forced to comply with the sanctions. And the other party, PPDB, the liberals, and the only Russophobic party, supported Radev in his presidency. As you can see, politics is a game, and geopolitics- even more so. TLDR Vox populi, vox Dei.

However that's how you build deeper cooperation. Without the caveat that you can veto any decision, countries wouldn't have joined and the project wouldn't have gotten of the ground. It sucks and it definitely would be better imo opinion to work toward a federation where no member state can block everything... But it's not possible to start out with that because then it just won't happen at all

Von der Leyen uses Orbán defeat to push for end of veto in EU foreign policy – POLITICO https://share.google/6bFnK79GUQkml5fgA Maybe something will change for better

I hope you keep the same energy when Russia wins in western europe too don't believe it will happen? Look who is leading the polls for the next elections in Austria oh and in Germany too.

The mental gymnastics would spin it around and it would still be EU's fault. You cannot win against the mindset

A lot of normal Bulgarians emigrated. Source: normal person born in that shithole