Bulgaria held a snap parliamentary election on Sunday 19 April 2026, and the Central Election Commission confirmed the result on Monday 20 April1. Progressive Bulgaria, the Coalition led by former president Rumen Radev, took 44.594% and 131 seats in the Narodno Sabranie (the national assembly), the first single-party majority since 1997. GERB-UDF, the centre-right alliance of Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria with the Union of Democratic Forces, took 13.387% for 39 seats. The reform alliance PP-DB (We Continue the Change with Democratic Bulgaria) took 12.618% for 37 seats. MRF (the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, the ethnic-Turkish minority party) took 7.120%.
Vazrazhdane (Revival, an anti-EU and anti-migration party) fell from 13-14% in 2024 polling to 4.257%, just clearing the 4% threshold for parliamentary representation. At 4% the party keeps its seats but loses the leverage of a Coalition kingmaker. Below 4% it would have lost every seat; above it, but well short of 13%, it can sit in opposition without blocking legislation.
The arithmetic matters because Bulgaria's December 2025 digital-nomad permit was a candidate hostage in any government featuring Vazrazhdane. The permit, set at an income floor of €31,000 a year and launched a fortnight after Bulgaria joined Schengen and the eurozone, is no longer a hostage. Radev has ruled out coalitions with Boyko Borissov (GERB), Delyan Peevski (MRF) and the PP-DB alliance, which means his majority does not depend on anyone with an interest in unwinding the scheme.
No party, including Vazrazhdane, ran a specific campaign line on the permit during the campaign2. The 4% electoral threshold was the structural variable that decided the result, not the permit itself. The next test turns on whether the new government extends, expands, or quietly maintains the scheme during its first 100 days.
