Bulgaria’s ruling coalition lost one of its key partners on Tuesday, just a day before a parliamentary debate on a no-confidence motion, further weakening the already fragile government ahead of a crucial vote.
The DPS-DPS party — a splinter faction of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), which traditionally represents Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish minority — announced it was withdrawing support for Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov’s government. The decision followed a weekend confrontation between the Ministry of Interior and the youth wing of the party at the Boyana government residence near Sofia, as well as months of mounting policy disagreements.
The withdrawal leaves the government with the backing of only 102 MPs in the 240-seat National Assembly: 66 from the centre-right GERB-SDS bloc, 19 from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP – United Left), and 17 from the populist There Is Such a People (ITN) party. The 19 MPs affiliated with DPS-DPS — considered close to long-time DPS honorary chairman Ahmed Dogan — have not yet said how they will vote in Thursday’s no-confidence debate.
A Fractured Alliance
DPS-DPS was invited into the coalition just three months ago, as part of a broad and controversial power-sharing arrangement aimed at stabilising Bulgarian politics after years of repeated elections and coalition collapses. The inclusion of DPS-DPS, a breakaway faction of the main DPS party, was seen as a move to isolate Delyan Peevski, a sanctioned oligarch-politician accused of wielding vast influence over state institutions.
But the coalition has since been dogged by accusations of backroom deals and cronyism — precisely the issues it had pledged to tackle. In a statement on Tuesday, senior DPS-DPS official Valentin Tonchev said the government had failed to dismantle the “Peevski model” of governance, and instead had entrenched it further.
“DPS was invited into the ruling majority as a nationally responsible party with a clear goal — to ensure political stability after a prolonged crisis and to dismantle the Peevski model, which turned institutions into instruments of dependency, corruption, and impunity,” Tonchev said. “Today, for the same reasons we entered this coalition, we are leaving it.”
Tonchev accused GERB, BSP, and ITN of abandoning the coalition’s joint governance agreement and accused them of serving the interests of Peevski, who has been sanctioned under the U.S. Global Magnitsky Act for corruption.
Next Steps and Growing Pressure
DPS-DPS said it would no longer back the ruling coalition as a bloc but would support individual policies on a case-by-case basis. The party also announced plans to propose the creation of a temporary parliamentary commission to investigate Peevski’s influence over Bulgaria’s judiciary and public finances.
“The National Assembly must urgently look into all facts and circumstances surrounding Peevski’s role in the judicial system and alleged influence peddling through the state budget,” Tonchev said.
The decision throws Thursday’s no-confidence vote into uncertainty. The motion, tabled by opposition parties, focuses on alleged corruption and abuse of power.
Separately, the Supreme Court of Cassation announced it had launched a case against a lower court ruling that refused to remove Peevski as chair and member of the main DPS party — a sign that legal and institutional challenges to his influence are ongoing.
Bulgaria has seen years of political instability, with frequent elections and short-lived governments. The current coalition, formed in an effort to end this cycle, brought together ideological rivals with the goal of isolating oligarchic influence and restoring public trust in state institutions.
Delyan Peevski, a former media mogul and political heavyweight, remains one of the most controversial figures in Bulgarian politics. His alleged control over the judiciary, media, and parts of the civil service has long drawn criticism from both domestic watchdogs and international partners, including the United States.
