Pushback of the Week, January 11, 2026

Patriots for Bulgaria

If you ask the average American or even the average Western European what they know about Bulgaria, chances are that their answer would be, “very little.”

A decade or so ago, entrepreneur Ivelin Mihaylov sought to change that and draw international awareness to Bulgaria’s vast historical-cultural riches by creating a Historical Park in the village of Neofit Rilski near the Black Sea capital of Varna—a first-of-its-kind theme park where “history and the past come to life.”

What does a theme park have to do with local pushback? In a December 2025 interview with Irish podcaster Ivor Cummins, 32-year-old Radoslav “Rado” Ivanov—who enthusiastically joined the Historical Park marketing team in 2017—explains that the project has had a number of unexpected political and economic ripple effects that continue to the present day.

Though Bulgaria belongs to the EU, it is, according to Rado, characterized by crumbling infrastructure, rigged elections, and a corrupt “Mafia Party” that thrives with undisguised EU complicity. After the Historical Park began experiencing economic success—attracting appreciative international tourists, earning a rare five stars on Trip Advisor, providing over 4,000 jobs, and boosting the value of local real estate—a giant wind farm developer (CWP Global) suddenly emerged in 2022 with a 610-million-euro proposal to ring the pristine Historical Park with industrial wind turbines. When locals started fighting back, they found themselves facing a mountain of dirty tricks ranging from frozen bank accounts and harassment by tax authorities to mafia threats and coordinated media attacks.

As Rado explains in fluent English acquired from having spent formative years living and working in the U.S., one thing led to another. Following creative grassroots and multimedia pushback and numerous political twists and turns, the group not only succeeded in getting the wind power project scaled back and suspended but created a transparency-focused local—and now, national—political party called Velichie (“Greatness”) that holds 10 seats (including Ivelin Mihaylov) in parliament.

If you are seeking inspiration about what local action can accomplish and lead to, this interview provides it in spades. Suggesting that “change usually comes from the periphery, not from the center,” Rado recommends keeping an eye on Bulgaria’s unraveling “political theater.”