Bulgaria Faces Wave of Disinformation as Country Prepares for 8th Election in Five Years

Bulgaria’s political landscape is bracing for yet another round of electoral turmoil as the country heads to the polls on April 19 for its eighth parliamentary election in just five years. As voting day approaches, officials are raising alarms about increasing levels of foreign interference and disinformation threatening the electoral process.

The upcoming snap parliamentary election sees Rumen Radev, the country’s Moscow-friendly former president from the Progressive Bulgaria party, currently leading in polls. Following closely behind is former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, representing the conservative center-right GERB party.

In an unprecedented move to counter foreign interference, Bulgaria’s government has requested assistance from Europe’s diplomatic service and activated the rapid response system under the Digital Services Act (DSA). This legislation, designed to make online spaces safer and more accountable, creates a mechanism connecting online platforms, civil society, and fact-checkers to identify and restrict content that could interfere with electoral processes.

The Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), an independent Bulgarian think tank tracking disinformation operations, painted a concerning picture in March. According to their assessment, Bulgaria has “one of the most permissive information environments for non-democratic malign manipulation in the EU and one of the least prepared institutional responses despite continuous progress.”

This vulnerability was evident earlier this year when Bulgaria faced a significant disinformation campaign regarding its planned eurozone accession in January 2026. The pro-Russian extremist party Vazrazhdane (Revival) emerged as one of the principal actors spreading misleading narratives. In February, Revival party members attempted to storm the headquarters of the European Union’s mission in Sofia during a protest against Bulgaria joining the eurozone, an act that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned as “outrageous.”

Svetoslav Malinov, an analyst at the CSD, told Euronews’ fact-checking team that Bulgaria represents a unique case in the disinformation landscape. “Bulgaria is actually not a typical case when you’re talking about disinformation, because it also combines prolonged political instability, weak regulators, and low public trust with a really strong domestic network that spreads and amplifies this type of information,” he explained.

These conditions create fertile ground for disinformation to take root and spread, even reaching institutional levels, according to Malinov. This becomes particularly visible during election periods, when various narratives gain traction among the public.

“Claims about voting machine hacks and rigging have triggered emergency amendments to the electoral code,” Malinov noted, highlighting how disinformation can directly impact governance. “Narratives around energy and the euro have also gained explosive new potency, especially since Bulgaria joined the eurozone this year. Often the rationale is that because we’re in the eurozone, the energy prices are even worse, and we’re paying even more money.”

The CSD has identified several online outlets at the center of operations spreading pro-Kremlin narratives in Bulgaria. One prominent example is Pogled Info, a so-called news website that repurposes content from sanctioned Russian entities and Chinese state-controlled sources, including Vzglyad, RIA Novosti, Tsargrad TV, and China Radio International.

“This type of infrastructure is like an amplification network where you can trace an article, which has been published in a EU-sanctioned Russian outlet, which is then republished and stripped. The author’s name is removed and republished on Pogled,” Malinov explained. “The claims from these articles are picked up within minutes on social media, often by accounts who are pro-Russian status.”

This coordinated system of content recycling and rapid amplification creates an ecosystem where misleading narratives can quickly reach large portions of the Bulgarian electorate, potentially influencing voting behavior and fueling political instability.

As Bulgaria approaches this critical election, the convergence of chronic political instability, foreign interference, and domestic amplification networks creates a perfect storm that threatens the integrity of the democratic process in this strategically important EU and NATO member state.