The new ruling party in Bulgaria uses “us versus them” mentality to discredit their opponents and depersonalise everyone who speaks out against their pro-Kremlin style of governing the country.
On 11th August 2026 the Council of Ministers in Bulgaria came out with an accoucement that “the Ministry of Interior’s increased monitoring of illegal online content that contains or incites violence, along with efforts to stop its dissemination, is among the measures that should be implemented immediately.”
The following day, 12th August 2026, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria used the brutal murder of 37-year old male by a group of teenagers to link the opposition to fascism, based on the fact that they took down a communist monument in central Sofia while he was still a president of the country.
On 13th August 2026 the Deputy Prime Minister Ivo Hristov, often regarded as the ideologist behind Radev’s party Progressive Bulgaria claimed that “hordes of trolls, all of them from PP-DB, rendered dialogue meaningless” – linking alleged troll activity to the pro-EU opposition in the parliament.
He called the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “troll” by saying: “The [former] Prime Minister Gyurov himself got a photo with the trolls during his visit in Kiev.” Gyurov has a well-known photo with Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit in Ukraine at the beginning of 2026.
On 24th August 2026 the Prime Minister Radev stated in front media that he and his government have “an army of trolls” against them.
On 26th August 2026 Petar Vitanov from Progressive Bulgaria used the podium of the National Assembly to claim that “in recent months, trolls affiliated with certain political parties have deprived Bulgarians of the opportunity to communicate freely on social media and have turned discussions into generators of hatred for partisan purposes.”
A clear pattern can be seen in a type of “us vs. them talking” speaking that further polarises Bulgarians and aims to discredit anyone who stands against Radev and his party. By using the word “trolls”, Radev, Hristov and others in Progressive Bulgaria aim to depersonalise their opponents, making it look like only people who support them are “real” and they rest are “fake”.
This type of speech deepens the division in society and opens up an opportunity for abuse of power. Such acts are easily paving the way towards an authoritarian regime under which you either agree with the government or you are an enemy of the state.
This can also be the first step of a slow and radical escalation where the people speaking out against Progressive Bulgaria, Radev and ultimately the Kremlin, are first branded as “trolls”, then as “extremists” and in the end as “terrorists” giving the government powers to silence everyone who shines a light on their lies, corruption and Moscow-style propaganda.
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