Young people holding a sign “Gen Z Operation” on a protest rally against the Budget 2026 bill in Sofia, December 1st 2025. Photo credit: Simeon Mironov, RFE/RL
On 1 December 2025, Bulgaria witnessed massive protests of hundreds of thousands people in the capital of Sofia and across the country. The protests were among the biggest ones in the past 35 years and continued in December 2025. In addition to the three biggest cities, many smaller towns joined the protests, which have not seen public discontent for decades.
On the same evening in Varna on a Black Sea coast, Bulgaria’s third largest city, the protestors welcomed the city mayor Blagovest Kotsev, just released after being in custody for half a year over reportedly trumped-up charges. A debate in the European Parliament called Kotsev “a political prisoner inside the European Union”.
The scale and dynamism of the protests were somewhat surprising given that Bulgaria had seven snap elections in 2001 – 2024 and six caretaker governments after major protests in 2020 and it was thought the citizens had little appetite to take to the streets again.
Triggered by the Budget, Protesting State Capture: Why it happened?
The trigger of the protests was the draft budget 2026, which planned a stеep rise in social contributions tax, increase in the costs for workers and making business, piling debt levels, and significant hikes in selected public sector salaries. Protesters feared the budget policy would reward loyalists, nurture clientelism and enrich those in power.
In short, people were concerned that they will be taxed higher but their taxpayer money will end up in the pockets of politicians and their favourites, not in improved public services. Younger generations were worried that they will be burdened with repaying the growing debts.
However, while the social issues play a significant role there are other, value-based factors at play for the protests. There is significant public anger at perceived injustices, which resulted from state capture, high-level corruption and the arbitrary use of the judiciary, the police and other state institutions.
The protest started with demands to withdraw the contentious budget 2026, but quickly escalated with calls for resignation of the government and retiring from politics of those viewed as the most responsible for the situation.
The protests gathered a broad representation of people from different age groups and different walks of life. In addition to big cities, smaller towns, which has not witnessed public discontent for decades, joined the protests too.
The active participation of many young people led to being called “Gen Z protests”, and indeed, the energy of the young drives the discontent, after being largely dismissed as indifferent in the political and social developments.
Bulgaria’s maladies are mainly personified, according to protesters, by Mr. Delyan Peevski, a politician and an oligarch, sanctioned by the US and the UK under the Global Magnitsky Act for corruption. Mr. Peevski, a leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning, the fourth largest party in parliament. Mr. Peevski’s party is not part of the government, but supports the cabinet. Mr. Peevski has turned into a kingmaker, essentially the strongest political figure in the country with oversized influence on politics, the economy and the media.
Bulgarians Are Not Complacent After All: Reaction to “All You Can Eat” Mentality
In 2025, the ruling coalition was lulled into believing its own propaganda that the Bulgarians are complacent and resigned after five years of political instability. This was especially true for Mr. Peevski, who aspired to become the local strongman, more visible and influential than the prime minister and the president and above its peers, despite being just the leader of the fourth largest party in parliament and not technically part of the government.
In the face of weakened and divided opposition and seemingly resigned public after years of political turmoul, Delyan Peevski seems to have considered the country as a “all you can eat buffet”, occupying important positions with confidants, diverting public budgets to loyalists, and suppressing opponents. However, Bulgaria’s citizens, despite their seeming apathy, must have payed attention to what is going on and the budget 2026 was the proverbial last straw.
The current protests follow two waves of discontent over the past dozen years. In 2013-2014, there were over 400 days of consecutive protests against the appointment of the same Mr. Delyan Peevski as head of the biggest security and intelligence agency in Bulgaria – State Agency for National Security (SANS).
In 2020, another wave of protests started against a GERB-led government, which marked a protracted period of political instability. From 2021 to 2024, Bulgaria had seven snap elections with six different caretaker governments, in addition to a presidential and European parliament elections as well as local elections. The current government came on power in January 2025, consisting of the centre-right GERB, the leftist BSP and the populist ITN but needs the votes of Peevski’s party to function and survive. GERB, the largest party, is led by veteran politician Boyko Borissov, who however did not become the prime minister. The current protests attribute the blame to the situation in the country to Mr. Peevski and Mr. Borissov, with demands that they retire from politics.
In 2025, there were other, relatively small-scale protests such as rule of law protests and those of young doctors and nurses, who demanded improvement of working conditions and professional prospects in order to stay in Bulgaria.
These are not party protests, as they do not have a clear political leadership and the protesters espouse different political views. But the protests are certainly political ones as they have political goals in the resignation of the government and the focus on politicians.
Indeed, the pro-European WCC-DB jumpstarted the events with a protest against the budget 2026 on 26 November 2025 and scheduling big protest on 1 December 2025, very likely one of many to follow. However, the protests do not have a central leadership and organization and are likely to remain as such.
For the past couple of years, the opposition was weak and divided as the energy of the 2020s protests fizzled out and political entrepreneurs misused the civic discontent. For brief period of time the political divisions were along “anti-corruption – corruption” and offered a common platform, but soon the “pro-Western” – “pro-Russian” divides emerged in the wake of the 2022 Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
President Rumen Radev, seen until recently as the strongest institutional opposition to the ruling coalition, is unmistakably pro-Russian. President Radev is reportedly harbours political ambitions beyond his second term in 2026, but he is not going to receive the support of pro-European voters as in 2021.
Indicatively, President Radev is against the planned Euro adoption as of 1 January 2026, as is the populist and pro-Russian opposition in the parliament. Both the ruling coalition and the main opposition party of WCC-DB are both supporters of the Eurozone entry. Some of the initial international coverage misread the protests as directed against the planned adoption of the Euro from 1 January 2026 – which certainly they were not – despite some anti-Euro protesters were also present on the streets.
People protesting in front of the Movement for Rights and Liberties (DPS) headquarters in Sofia under a poster saying “Young Bulgaria clean of mafia”, December 1st 2025. Generation Z Photo credit: Damyana Veleva, RFE/RL
What is likely to happen: Probably Snap Elections but the Upside is Civic Resilience
Despite that the government withdrew the controversial budget 2026 and promised to submit an improved version, this is too little too late for the citizens. The revision of the budget is no longer enough, as probably is the resignation of the government – the protests demand the withdrawal from politics the two figures they view as the most responsible for the situation – Delyan Peevski and Boyko Borissov. The protests around the country continued on 10 December 2025 to coincide with a vote of no confidence against the cabinet by the opposition We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition, the second biggest group in parliament. These protests took place in all 28 regional centers and a number of smaller towns and were certainly one of the biggest, if not the biggest protests in the last 35 years. It should be noted that in addition to “Gen Z” active participation, these protests also witnessed participation of Bulgarian Muslims and Roma, who Delyan Peevski claims to represent and control and who tried to incite ethnic tensions to save himself.
The biggest takeout of the protests is that many Bulgarian citizens are not complacent, civil society in the broader sense is very much alive across the country to stand up to state capture and abuse of power – a poll showed 71% support the protests. The protesting Bulgarians also showed they have no appetite for a local strongman as some politicians imaged and would not trade abuse of power for stability.
This is a confirmation of existing societal attitudes. In a survey conducted in September 2025 by the Open Society Institute – Sofia, 33% of respondents said they would defend democracy at the expense of their personal safety, and 28% said they would do so even if it meant becoming the target of a smear campaign. These figures mean that approximately 1.5 million Bulgarian citizens are willing to take personal risks to defend the democratic order in the country.
The protests so far have resulted in three outcomes, two of which is a direct result of the protest demands, and the other is a major consequence of the overall change in the situation:
- The controversial budget 2026 has been withdrawn and is now being redrafted by the ruling coalition. The withdrawal of the budget was a key demand of the protestors, who perceived it as an expression of the political wrongs such as corruption, lack of accountability, favoring loyalists and a step towards the country’s economic deterioration. and,
- Boyko Borissov and GERB’s parliamentary group, which is the biggest one in the parliament, signed a petition to abolish an infamous “Anti-Soros Commission” to the national parliament, which was pushed for by Delyan Peevski, MRF’s leader. This indicates, among other things, that Borissov wants to distance himself and his party from Peevski, who has been a liability. If enacted, the commission would have had a major chilling effect on the entire independent civil society and would represent the suppression of democracy in the country.
- Because of the civic protests, the government resigned with the parliament approving the resignation on 12 December 2025. The parties could try to form another cabinet in this parliament, but the most likely development is snap elections in early 2026.
A share of 71% of citizens support the protests, according to new poll from 11 December 2025 (Market Links). A share of 82% of citizens agree with the statement “the protests are against the model of governance” and 75% of respondents agree “the protests are for the normalization of the country”. This is indeed a very broad support for the protest goals and extends well over the narrow party lines or other existing political rifts. This indeed shows very broad support for the protest goals, extending beyond narrow party lines.
Last update as of 12 December 2025
Marin Lessenski
Open Society Institute – Sofia
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Open Society Institute – Sofia.
