Bulgaria’s threat to block the bloc’s 21st Russia sanctions package shows that the Union’s weakness was never Viktor Orbán alone. It is a rule under which one capital’s refusal binds the other 26 and owes them no reason.
The EU’s latest rule-of-law drama isn’t in Warsaw or Budapest — it’s brewing quietly in Sofia. Unlike Poland and Hungary, Bulgaria isn’t rewriting or bending its constitution to political will, nor is it openly defying Brussels. Instead, it is preserving the form of the law while hollowing out its substance.
The timeline for Bulgaria’s journey toward eurozone membership has already slipped from January 2024 to sometime in 2026, with obstacles including the country’s own political fragility — the nation is grappling with elections for seventh time in three years, a revolving door of governments, high inflation and targeted disinformation campaigns.
The protests in Bulgaria clearly open the debate on whether the rule of law remains the central shared value for all Europeans.