SOFIA -- The far-right Revival party is pushing again for Bulgaria to pass legislation to punish anyone who has received any foreign funding, similar to "foreign agent" legislation in Russia that's been copied elsewhere amid outcries from critics who warn such laws are aimed at silencing critics.
However, at least a few high-profile members of Revival plus the wife of the party's firebrand leader, Kostadin Kostadinov, appear to have benefited from the foreign-funded programs they are now decrying.
Russia's restrictive "foreign agent" law, introduced in 2012 but tightened since then, has served as a template for other governments seeking to silence critics, observers say. Earlier this year, Georgia's government pushed its own version of the "foreign agent" law through parliament, despite weeks of street protests.
In December 2023, the Hungarian parliament passed legislation on "protecting national sovereignty," a bill pushed by Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban that critics said was similar to the Russian law.
Revival's targeting of NGOs and individuals who receive any funding comes after a recent legislative success that shocked much of the country's civil society. The far-right party, which often amplifies pro-Kremlin narratives and has demanded that Bulgaria exit NATO, spearheaded efforts in Bulgaria's National Assembly, the country's unicameral parliament, to pass controversial legislation to ban "gay propaganda" in schools, despite street protests at home and criticism abroad.
This isn't the first time Revival, which pushed anti-vaccine disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, has taken a stand on foreign funding. In 2022, the party proposed a milder version of the law that would target only journalists receiving any foreign funding. That legislative effort was voted down in parliament after a wave of criticism, including from international media organizations.
Revival wasn't deterred, however, and tried to push the bill, again unsuccessfully, a year later.
Now, perhaps buoyed by its recent anti-LGBT parliamentary win, which was passed with the help of some pro-EU parties, is trying again.
The latest proposed "foreign agent" law would require organizations, artists, journalists, or bloggers receiving foreign funding to register as "foreign agents" and prohibits them from working in state universities, commenting on political events, or participating in government-funded projects.
The bill has not been introduced into the 240-member parliament, but it has been discussed by two parliamentary committees.
'Dirty Money'
Ognyan Minchev, a Bulgarian political scientist, wrote on Facebook that Revival was attempting to portray foreign grants as "dirty money."
One of the most vocal backers of the proposed bill is Kosta Stoyanov, a Revival deputy and chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Children, Youth, and Sports -- one of the committees to have discussed the proposed legislation.
However, Stoyanov himself has benefited from the largesse of foreign donors.
According to his biography, accessible on the party's website, Stoyanov was the executive director from January 2018 to October 2022 of a local NGO in Dolni Chiflik and Byala, two towns in the Black Sea coastal region of Varna. During that time, the NGO received EU grant money for community infrastructure projects.
Stoyanov was a member, until 2018, of an association of municipalities for managing EU funds. He is still active in assessing Bulgarian projects for EU programs.
Another deputy from Revival, Angel Yanchev, has also benefited during his career from foreign-funded programs.
Yanchev has raged against two educational foundations in Bulgaria that receive U.S. funding, saying that they foul the country's educational system and its "values." Yanchev was also one of the most outspoken proponents of the anti-LGBT in schools law.
Yanchev is a former educator himself. He was a history teacher before later serving as a principal of a high school in Veliko Tarnovo, a city in central Bulgaria.
During his time as a principal, he twice benefited from programs funded by the America for Bulgaria Foundation, which, according to its website, "is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonpolitical American grant-making foundation working in partnership with Bulgarians to strengthen the country's private sector and related democratic institutions.
In 2015, Yanchev participated in a training workshop on school leadership and teaching methods with leading U.S. experts.
Velina Kostadinova, the wife of the leader of Revival, is on the board of an educational NGO in Varna, which has received grants from foreign funders and is a partner of the Soros Open Society Institute as well as dozens of other foreign partners.
