MRF

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), known in Bulgarian as Движение за права и свободи (ДПС), is Bulgaria's historically dominant ethnic-Turkish party, representing Bulgaria's approximately 700,000 ethnic Turkish and Muslim minority. Founded in 1990, it has been a Coalition kingmaker in nearly every Bulgarian government since 2001. The party split in 2023-24 over the influence of Delyan Peevski, with one faction (MRF-New Vision) controlled by Peevski and the other (MRF-New Beginning) attempting to distance from him.

In the April 2026 election context, the MRF factions' combined vote share means any government that lacks a comfortable majority must calculate whether to include MRF support — and therefore whether to accept Peevski's influence. Rumen Radev, as PM-designate, has historically and vocally opposed any arrangement involving Peevski.

For the nomad-and-communities topic, MRF's Coalition role is a governance-risk signal alongside Bulgaria's generally positive positioning: the nomad permit is not an MRF priority, but the political instability that recurring Coalition crises generate creates an uncertain regulatory environment for any medium-term residency planning in Bulgaria.