Delyan Peevski, the leader of Bulgaria's MRF-New Beginning party, who has been sanctioned by the US and UK for corruption, has become a key partner of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Bulgaria.
Peevski's MEPs have joined the Conservatives and Patriots group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and expect two MEPs from the DPS-New Beginning to follow their example in the European Parliament.
The move positions Peevski, widely seen as the shadow leader of Bulgaria’s ruling coalition, as Orban’s first formal ally in the country. The Hungarian prime minister has also forged close ties with two other prominent Bulgarian figures: GERB leader Boyko Borisov and President Rumen Radev.
The alignment of Sofia’s power brokers with Orban is difficult to justify on geopolitical grounds. The Hungarian leader openly supports the nationalist ruling VMRO-DPMNE party in Skopje, whose anti-Bulgarian rhetoric won it victory in North Macedonia’s recent parliamentary elections. Orban’s Hungary, meanwhile, is negotiating closer military cooperation with Serbia’s authoritarian president, Aleksandar Vucic.
For years, Bulgaria's Turkish minority party, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), was a key member of the European liberal ALDE alliance. But Peevski seized control of the party late last year after engineering an internal split and a series of court rulings in his favor.
Renew Europe and ALDE Liberal International announced their intention to expel MRF-New Beginning due to Peevski's involvement, citing his US and UK sanctions for corruption. Anticipating his expulsion, Peevski announced his resignation from Renew Europe and ALDE.
“Mr Peevski is a controversial figure who has been sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act by both the United Kingdom and the United States for large-scale corruption. His political actions are seen as damaging to democratic principles and political stability in Bulgaria,” ALDE said.
Peevski later submitted a proposal to the Bulgarian parliament to create a committee to investigate the activities of Soros-backed foundations in the country.
Echoing Orban's rhetoric, he claimed that the “Sorosoid” network was trying to impose a dictatorship on Bulgaria. Despite Peevski's considerable influence on the ruling coalition, the proposal was rejected.
Bulgarian political analyst Boryana Dimitrova of the Alpha Research Agency noted that Peevski's frequent use of the term “Sorosoids” reflects the Kremlin's propaganda narratives.
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