Bulgaria’s fight with corruption brings its fifth election in two years

PARENTS IN SOFIAGERBNATO, the Bulgarian capital, like to bring their kids to the Museum of Illusions, where they can take distorted photos of themselves in strange mirrors and stare at optical illusions until their eyes cross. As Bulgaria prepared for its fifth general election in two years on April 2nd, voters could be forgiven for thinking that their country’s politics were largely an illusion too. Take last year: while parliament was debating whether to authorise sending arms to Ukraine, Bulgaria’s leaders insisted that the country was not yet doing so. In fact, by November 3rd, when parliament approved the exports, its arms factories had already been shipping weapons to Ukraine for months.Boyko Borisov (pictured), a burly conservative, dominated Bulgaria’s political life from 2009 to 2021. His party is pro-Western in a country where Russia is widely admired. His tenure as prime minister ended in May 2021 amid over allegations of corruption. Now the political landscape is shorn of big parties. Policy towards Ukraine and Russia remains contested. The share of Bulgarians who view Vladimir Putin favourably dropped from 70% before the invasion of Ukraine to 29% afterwards. But a poll in October found that 67% thought Bulgaria—a member—should remain neutral, 16% that it should support Ukraine and 9% that it should support Russia.