Asen Vassilev has said We Continue the Change could try to deliver its priorities through parliamentary votes rather than a formal coalition after Bulgaria's 19 April election, while ruling out coalition agreements with GERB and DPS.

Speaking at a pre-election event in Plovdiv, and quoted by Novinite, Vassilev said political consistency should be judged by how parties vote in parliament, not simply by campaign rhetoric. The message was plain enough: no coalition, but not necessarily no influence.

What Vassilev said

According to Novinite, Vassilev said a coalition with GERB and DPS could not be formed. He also criticised the camp around President Rumen Radev, saying its economic policy ideas were, in his view, seriously problematic.

He went on to say that joint governance with Radev's side was impossible, while leaving open the prospect of parliamentary cooperation on specific votes aimed at what he described as the removal of Boyko Borissov and Delyan Peevski from influence.

One concrete target did emerge from the speech. Vassilev said a key objective was to reduce their parliamentary strength to below 80 seats.

Why the number matters

In Bulgaria, seat arithmetic is not a footnote. It is often the whole plot.

A fragmented parliament can leave parties unable to form a stable cabinet, but still able to block legislation, shape committees, or make life difficult for rivals. That is the logic behind Vassilev's argument that influence can be exercised through voting patterns even without a signed coalition agreement.

That said, no detailed legislative plan for how this would work in practice was set out.

The missing responses

The Novinite report carries no response from GERB, DPS, or Radev's camp.

That matters because several of Vassilev's claims are politically charged. In particular, he said Radev had ended his campaign with Russian flags and a photo with Vladimir Putin. That allegation was reported as part of Vassilev's speech but was not independently corroborated, and no reply from Radev's side was included.

For readers trying to make sense of Bulgaria's election noise, it is worth keeping the distinction clear between a verified event and a campaign accusation. The country has quite enough of the latter already.

Why Borissov and Peevski matter

For readers not marinated in Bulgarian politics, these are not random names.

  • Boyko Borissov is the long-dominant leader of GERB and one of the central figures in Bulgarian politics over the past two decades
  • Delyan Peevski is one of the country's most controversial power brokers and a recurrent figure in debates about political influence, state capture and opaque networks of power
  • Both men feature heavily in anti-corruption rhetoric and in arguments about who really holds leverage inside the state

That helps explain why Vassilev framed reducing their seat count as a political objective in itself. The point is not just who sits in government, but who can still steer events from the benches, committees and back rooms.

How workable is a no-coalition strategy?

The short answer is: possible in theory, risky in practice.

Bulgaria's recent political history has been full of short-lived parliaments, difficult coalition talks and governments assembled with all the grace of flat-pack furniture built in the dark. Refusing formal coalition with major parties may appeal to voters tired of compromise deals, but it also narrows the routes to a durable majority.

Vassilev's approach appears to rest on three assumptions:

  • that enough parties would back specific laws on a case-by-case basis
  • that anti-GERB and anti-Peevski positioning can survive the realities of parliamentary bargaining
  • that voters will reward consistency more than they punish deadlock

That may prove true. It may also produce another parliament where everyone rules something out and then spends weeks discovering arithmetic has a wicked sense of humour.

The EU, defence and Ukraine

Vassilev also used the event to repeat that Bulgaria's future lies in the European Union. He described the EU as the world's wealthiest region and argued for stronger European defence structures.

That places him squarely in the pro-EU camp in an election where foreign policy alignment remains part of the domestic argument. For British readers in Bulgaria, or those with business or family ties here, that matters because Bulgaria's direction on EU policy, regional security and defence cooperation affects the wider climate for trade, regulation and stability.

Post-Brexit, the UK is outside the EU but hardly outside European security. A Bulgarian political class split over Russia, Ukraine and defence cooperation is therefore not just a local parlour game. It feeds into the broader strategic picture on NATO's eastern flank.

On Ukraine, Vassilev questioned the idea of external military imposition, saying Ukraine's armed forces were defending their own country and arguing that Bulgaria should reject any similar outside dictate over its affairs. That was presented as his view of the Bulgarian national interest.

Why this matters to Britons in Bulgaria

If you are a British resident in Bulgaria, repeated political stalemate can have practical consequences beyond the usual Sofia soap opera.

It can affect the pace of decisions on:

  • budgets and public spending
  • tax and income measures
  • administrative reform
  • business regulation
  • EU-linked legislation and funding

In plain English, when parliament is splintered, things move slowly, unpredictably, or not at all. Anyone running a business, buying property, dealing with local administration or waiting for policy clarity tends to notice.

What to watch after the vote

After polling day, the key questions will be straightforward enough:

  • can PP-DB turn votes into actual parliamentary leverage?
  • can a no-coalition strategy hold once government formation begins?
  • will Bulgaria get a workable cabinet, a fragile arrangement, or another spell of drift?
  • do disputes over Russia, Ukraine and EU defence harden further?

For now, Vassilev's position is that formal coalition is not the only route to power in parliament. That is true as far as it goes. In Bulgaria, though, the distance between a campaign line and a governing formula is usually where the trouble starts.