Bulgaria's Most Powerful Oligarch, Delyan Peevski, May Be Losing His Grip On Power

Delyan Peevski, a leading politician and Bulgaria's most powerful oligarch, is something of an enigma. Apart from a few hotels he is rumored to frequent, no one knows where he lives. And you will rarely see him out on the streets, with the 44-year-old preferring to roll up to parliament in a convoy of black armored SUVs, flanked by dozens of bodyguards.

Yet if you asked a Bulgarian politician who is to blame for the ongoing political crisis, where the country is facing its seventh election in three years, they would most likely lay the blame squarely at Peevski's door.

For years, the oligarch has operated mostly behind the scenes. With his control of newspapers and much of the media distribution network, Peevski carries incredible sway over public opinion. In 2018, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said Peevski embodied the "corruption and collusion between media, politicians, and oligarchs," accusations that Peevski denies, saying his domestic opponents press international rights groups to include him in their reports.

Having served as a parliamentary deputy intermittently since 2009 and having held various state positions, including as the head of Bulgaria's counterintelligence agency, Peevski wields significant influence over political figures and institutions.

Political Turmoil

In 2023, the media tycoon stepped into the limelight, regularly attending parliament and speaking to the press. By early 2024, he had become chairman of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), a party that has traditionally represented Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish and Muslim minorities. In June, he led the party to second place in the parliamentary elections, winning 47 out of 240 seats.

As Peevski's political star rose, Bulgaria entered an unprecedented (in the postcommunist era) period of political turmoil. From 2009 to 2021, the center-right GERB party, led by Boyko Borisov, a mainstay of Bulgarian politics, ruled mostly without interruptions. But since 2021, there have been six consecutive parliamentary elections. GERB has won four of them but has never managed to form a government.

For the average Bulgarian, Peevski epitomizes the shadowy world of corruption and organized crime that many believe has captured the state. He is perhaps one of the country's least trusted politicians. In a recent poll, only 2 percent of Bulgarians said they trusted him while 88 percent distrusted him.

Under its Magnitsky Act, the United States has imposed sanctions on Peevski, accusing him of corruption and influence peddling in order "to protect himself from public scrutiny and exert control over key institutions and sectors." The United Kingdom has also imposed sanctions, saying Peevski was "involved in attempts to exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian society through bribery and use of his media empire."

The media tycoon and politician has taken action to legally contest the international sanctions and has continuously refuted the accusations made against him. He has filed a legal case in a U.S. to get the sanctions lifted, claiming the charges were politically motivated and without merit.

'Toxic' Partner

His tarnished reputation has meant many Bulgarian politicians now refuse to work with him. For them Peevski is "toxic," says Dimitar Bechev, a lecturer at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, a Brussels-based think tank.

Hristo Ivanov, one of the leaders of the pro-Western reformist We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) coalition, told RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service on July 30 that "the fundamental problem of Bulgaria is the 'captured state,' which in recent years has been most personified by Peevski."

Many Bulgarian politicians are now beginning to realize that any association with the media tycoon may lose them votes. The PP-DB coalition might have seen the consequences of its brief partnership with Peevski's DPS party between June 2023 and April. In Bulgaria's last parliamentary elections, in June, its supporters abandoned the coalition in droves. And the GERB party, which has worked closely and publicly with Peevski, has continued to hemorrhage voters.

Faltering Reforms

Bulgarian politicians have also accused Peevski of constantly derailing reform efforts.

When a rickety coalition comprising the two largest political parties in Bulgaria at the time, GERB and PP-DB, ruled the country in 2023-24, both parties vowed to support military aid to Ukraine, embrace the euro, and bring Bulgaria fully into the Schengen border-free zone.

However, the more reform-minded PP-DB also proposed measures that would reduce the power of the prosecutor-general and purge the security services of Russian influence, insisting on a precise timetable for their completion.

Former Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov

With GERB dragging is feet on the proposed reforms, the coalition government fell apart in March. In an April interview with RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service, Nikolay Denkov, one of the coalition's rotating prime ministers, blamed Peevski for exerting pressure on GERB and leader Borisov in order to derail talks between the two coalition partners.

Peevski was afraid of the reforms, Denkov said, and had an undue influence on Borisov. "I saw it with my own eyes.... We go to the meeting, and Peevski is sitting next to Borisov," he said. "And in fact, during those months, 80 percent of the time, the conversation was with Peevski, not with Borisov."

After the last elections in June, Borisov also distanced himself from Peevski. With GERB winning the elections and the DPS coming second, the two parties could have formed a government with the support of a few independent lawmakers. But Borisov said several times he did not want to govern with only the DPS and Peevski.

Party Spilt

The upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for October, may be a turning point, however, largely due to a deep split in Peevski's DPS.

After becoming chairman of the DPS in early 2024, Peevski began purging the party of members close to Ahmed Dogan, the party's longtime leader and now honorary chairman. That faction is now fighting back, with Dogan and members of the party's base now demanding Peevski's resignation.

As a result of the party split, analysts have said that Peevski could either fail to be elected to the next parliament or have significantly fewer lawmakers supporting him. Other parties have already discussed the possibility of isolating Peevski after the October elections.

"We have to accept that we will work with those who are against Peevski in the DPS," PP-DB leader Ivanov said. "For once we [have to be] tactically smart and, when the window [for this] opens, to remove the latest [incarnation] of the corrupt state."

The instability and inertia also come at a time when Bulgaria, the poorest and most corrupt country in the EU, is increasingly isolated and losing ground in the bloc.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has been waiting for Bulgaria to propose a European commissioner for weeks, but the political upheaval has meant Sofia has reportedly still not made a decision on the candidate.

And while the EU has approved an economic plan worth 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion), Bulgaria is unlikely to see the majority of that money until it carries out EU-mandated reforms, including anti-corruption measures.

Bulgaria's political inertia may also have damaged its regional security, with the war in Ukraine just across the Black Sea. Sofia is not actively involved in regional security talks and is "punching below its weight class," says Matthew Boyce, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute and a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state.

"If the country doesn't manage to get out of this [political] stalemate," warns Vessela Tcherneva, deputy director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, "this will additionally widen access for countries such as Russia that would want to have influence in an EU and NATO member state."