Russia-aligned Rumen Radev wins landslide in Bulgaria – POLITICO

Rumen Radev, a Russia-aligned former president, scored an emphatic win in Bulgaria’s election on Sunday, crushing long-established parties that he accused of being the key enablers of an oligarch-dominated mafia state.

The election was the Balkan country’s eighth in five years — amid rolling political crises and fragile coalitions — and 62-year-old former air force commander Radev used his newly created Progressive Bulgaria party to break the impasse.

With 68 percent of ballots counted, it looked like he had effectively overturned Bulgaria’s old political order, winning about 44 percent of the vote. A pro-EU liberal reformist coalition was in second place, with about 14 percent.