We Continue the Change Продължаваме промяната
Abbreviation	PP
Leader	Assen Vassilev
Founders	Kiril Petkov Assen Vassilev
Founded	17 September 2021 (2021-09-17)[1]
Registered	15 April 2022 (2022-04-15)
Youth wing	Youth for the Change[2]
Women's wing	Her, the Change[3]
Membership(29 June 2025)	6,000+
Ideology	Liberalism Progressivism Anti-corruption Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre
National affiliation	PP–DB
European affiliation	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
European Parliament group	Renew Europe
Colours	Blue   Yellow   Green
National Assembly	17 / 240
European Parliament	2 / 17
Municipalities	6 / 265
Sofia City Council	5 / 61
Website
promeni.bg
Politics of Bulgaria Political parties Elections

We Continue the Change (Bulgarian:Продължаваме промяната,romanized: Prodalzhavame promyanata;PP), sometimes translated asChange Continues,^[4][5] is acentrist,anti-corruptionpolitical party and formerly anelectoral alliance inBulgaria founded byKiril Petkov andAssen Vassilev.^[6][1] It was founded ahead of theNovember 2021 election.^[7] The party was officially registered on 15 April.^[8] The party was a ruling party in Bulgaria during the periods ofKiril Petkov's government (December 2021 –December 2022) and as part of thePP-DB alliance in theNikolai Denkov government (June 2023 – April 2024).

The controversialthird Borisov government, a coalition between the conservativeGERB and the nationalistUnited Patriots alliance, with the support of the populistVolya Movement, sparkedmass protests over corruption allegations, which led to the rise of several new parties and populist movements. At the end of the term of theNational Assembly,a parliamentary election was held in April 2021, which saw the minor coalition partners fail to reach the 4% threshold. Instead, several anti-Borisov parties and electoral coalitions entered parliament (ITN,DB andIBG-NI), with a combined 92 seats. None of them were willing to form a government with any of the other “status quo” parties (BSP,GERB andDPS) and the BSP was unwilling to work with GERB. Thus, no government could be formed anda snap election was scheduled to take place in July.Bulgarian PresidentRumen Radev appointed aninterim government.

Several ministers from the interim government became outspoken critics of Borisov and his allies. This includedInterior ministerBoyko Rashkov,Finance ministerAssen Vassilev,Economy ministerKiril Petkov andEducation ministerNikolai Denkov. TheJuly 2021 election saw the three “protest parties” make gains to a total of 112 seats, and ITN surpassed GERB to become the winning party. However no government could be formed, and anothersnap election was scheduled to take place in November, alongside the presidential election. Three of the anti-Borisov interim ministers (Assen Vassilev,Kiril Petkov andNikolai Denkov) had been offered to join ITN's government, however, they refused the offer.^[9]

Petkov and Vassilev stated that they would start their own political project that would be an alternative anti-corruption party which could be seen as a “uniting force” between the other parties.^[10] Anew interim government was appointed by presidentRadev which did not include ministers Petkov and Vassilev.^[11] Their party was officially launched on 17 September 2021, following a month-long speculation about its creation.^[12] The two former ministers were coined the “Harvard boys” by the media, as both had been educated there.^[13][14][15]

Since the party was created too late to have its own registration, it had to compete in the elections within an electoral coalition alongside one or more registered member parties. This was done throughVolt Bulgaria andMiddle European Class,^[16] with the former being a party that recently left the parliamentary coalitionIBG-NI.

For the2021 presidential election, Petkov and Vassilev declared their support for the incumbent PresidentRumen Radev.^[17] The party favoured working with the anti-establishment parties, not in a pre-electoral coalition, but instead in the form of an agreement of cooperation following theNovember election.^[18] There was speculation it may join a coalition withBSP for Bulgaria. It did not rule out working with GERB–SDS or DPS, but Petkov set out harsh conditions if they were to cooperate.^[19][20]

In the November election, the party came out on top with over 25% of the vote and 67 of the 240 seats. It was given the mandate to form a government on 13 December 2021, and formed a broad coalition between the anti-establishment partiesThere Is Such a People andDemocratic Bulgaria, alongside the leftistBSP for Bulgaria.^[21][22] Thegovernment, led by Petkov, set out to remove corruption within the country and counter the problems faced by Bulgaria, including the energy crisis and COVID-19 pandemic.^[23][24]

The new government included five ministers from the interim governments that preceded it - Petkov, Vassilev, Rashkov, Denkov and former prime ministerStefan Yanev. Yanev was dismissed following his refusal to label theRussian invasion of Ukraine as a war.^[25] The government became aminority government on 8 June 2022, when ITNpulled out of it.^[26] Several weeks later, it became was the first government in Bulgarian history to lose avote of confidence. As the largest party, they were given the first mandate to form another government. Their nominee was Assen Vassilev, who returned the mandate unfulfilled.^[27] No party was able to form another government and anew election was scheduled to take place.

During the period of the government, the party was officially registered,^[8][28] despite legal challenges regarding the party name.^[29]

The new election saw PP fall to second place with 19.5% and 53 seats, behind GERB. As the second-largest party, they were given a mandate for government formation following the rejection of GERB's candidate by the National Assembly. Their candidate for Prime Minister was Nikolai Denkov,^[30] who did not receive a majority in Parliament. PP refused to join in talks with BSP, and new elections will be scheduled for Spring 2023.^[31][32]

We Continue the Change (PP) decided to contest the 2023 election together with the allianceDemocratic Bulgaria. In the elections, PP won 36 seats as part of the coalition.

In June 2025, Petkov resigned as leader of PP, following one of the party's district mayors being accused of misuse of public procurement and the party's zero tolerance approach to corruption^[33] He also called onBoyko Borisov, theGERB leader, to resign.^[34]

PP is acentrist party,^[35] although it has been also described as acentre-left^[36] or acentre-right party.^[37][38] Ideologically, it has been described as aliberal,^{[39][40][41][42]} andsocial-liberal party.^[43] Apro-European^[44] andanti-corruption party,^[42][45] economically, its main goals are to create a favourable economic and administrative environment for the free development of small and medium-sized businesses and to attract strategic high-tech investments and was calledthird way for Bulgarian standards.^[46] On a more political level, they seek to stop corruption and misuse of state funds as well as uphold the rule of law.^[47] Priority for government formation is the access to quality education and healthcare for all Bulgarian citizens, modern infrastructure. They also stress social policy, in particular improving pensions for retired people.^[48]

For the 2021 parliamentary elections, the coalition campaigned on a vague platform to attract voters of different persuasions, with particular emphasis on the corruption of the former government of Boyko Borissov. Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev, both businessmen, were seen as pro-business and advocated anchoring Bulgaria in theEuropean Union andNATO.^[49]

The party is sometimes identified as having a centre-left and a centre-right wing, led by Vassilev and Petkov respectively.^[50] Following Petkov's resignation and the 2025 party congress that reelected Vassilev as the sole party leader,Nikola Minchev stated that he expected the party to shift towards the centre-left.^[51]

In2021 and2022 PP ran in a coalition of the same name, “We continue the change”, alongside two smaller “mandate carrier” parties,Volt Bulgaria, andMiddle European Class (SEC),^[52] which surrendered their party lists up to the coalition to be used at the election.^[53] Additionally for the November 2021 election, thePolitical Movement “Social Democrats” was a part of the electoral coalition and theUnion of Free Democrats unofficially supported it.

Ahead of the2023 election PP merged with another anti-corruption coalition,DB.^[55] The two had worked closely together in theprevious parliament. They were supported by other anti-corruption parties, some of which had been a part ofIBG-NI.

The coalition took part in theNovember 2021 Bulgarian election, coming in first place with 25.67% of the vote and 67 seats.^[56][57] At the election, the coalition won 67 seats. 4 went toSEC and 2 seats were won byVolt. The main 'We Continue the Change' party won the rest of the seats. In 2022, the electoral coalition dropped down to second place behindGERB–SDS, with 53 seats overall.^[58]

National Assembly

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Alliance Seats	Party Seats	+/–	Government
Nov 2021[a]	Kiril Petkov Assen Vassilev	673,170	25.32 (#1)	67 / 240	61 / 67	New	Coalition
2022[a]		506,099	19.52 (#2)	53 / 240	47 / 53	14	Snap election
2023[b]		619,592	23.53 (#2)	64 / 240	36 / 64	11	Coalition
Jun 2024[b]		307,849	13.92 (#3)	39 / 240	22 / 39	14	Snap election
Oct 2024[b]		346,063	13.74 (#2)	36 / 240	19 / 37	3	Opposition

• 2021 establishments in Bulgaria
• 2022 establishments in Bulgaria
• Anti-corruption parties
• Centrist parties in Bulgaria
• Liberal parties in Bulgaria
• Political parties established in 2021
• Political parties established in 2022
• Pro-European political parties in Bulgaria

• CS1 Bulgarian-language sources (bg)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Bulgarian-language text