Week in Review: Fresh Starts, Rising Stars

Turning a New Page

People stand on their balconies next to the election banner of the GERB party reading, 'Stronger than chaos' in Sofia. Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

Bulgarians went to the polls to vote for a new Parliament a record third time this year, after the two previous Parliamentary elections - held in April and July - delivered fragmented Parliaments in which the political parties and movements could not agree a governing majority. As the results are digested and scrutinised, what next for Bulgaria?

The results this time around showed that Bulgarian voters decided to reshuffle the political cards in the new Parliament, creating winners and losers. Among those losers, as Tom Junes argues in his opinion piece for Balkan Insight, were the old established parties of Bulgarian politics. But who were the winners?

Read more: Bulgarian Politics Turns New Page in Watershed Election (November 16, 2021)

Rising Stars

Cars pass the election poster of the leaders of the 'We continue the change' party Kiril Petkov (R) and Asen Wassilv (L). Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

A new Parliamentary election brings a new political party to the fore of Bulgarian politics, upsetting the calculations of both some well-established parties, as well as other, previously successful newcomers. But who are the people behind We Continue the Change, the newly-formed party that achieved victory in the Bulgarian Parliamentary elections?

Two Harvard educated men - Kiril Petkov and Asen Vassilev - are responsible for turning Bulgarian politics on its head yet again this year. To the relief of many inside the EU, they seem more pragmatic on the issue of opening accession negotiations with North Macedonia. But where do they...