Published on: 17.09.2026 | Author: Evelina Soukou
Who Sounds ‘Bulgarian’? The Politics of Sound on Sofia’s Streets
by Evelina Soukou
On 13 June 2026, central Sofia had two different soundtracks. The March for the Family began after Vespers and a prayer for the Bulgarian family at St Nedelya Cathedral and proceeded towards Alexander Nevsky Cathedral accompanied by the National Guard Band.[1] A little further away, Sofia Pride had been preceded by a concert featuring pop and electronic music and continued through the streets with mobile stages and powerful sound systems.[2] For a few hours, two different versions of Bulgaria acquired their own rhythm, ritual and audience, while simultaneously laying claim to the same public space. The confrontation was not only about what the two marches were saying, but also about which one could make its presence seem more familiar, self-evident and, ultimately, national.
One day before the marches, the governing Progressive Bulgaria gave this distinction institutional weight. From the floor of the National Assembly, Slavi Vassilev, speaking on behalf of the parliamentary group, expressed its support for the March for the Family and linked the “traditional family” not only to personal or religious beliefs, but to Bulgaria’s demographic crisis and future.[3] The shift is small in language but politically significant. The family ceases to be one social value among others and becomes a criterion of national continuity. Moreover, when its supporters are presented as the “silent majority” defending faith, tradition and nation, the division becomes deeper than the familiar conservative-liberal divide. Some lives acquire greater symbolic kinship with the nation itself. The rest do not even need to be labelled “non-Bulgarian”. It is enough to place them slightly further away from the definition of what is Bulgarian. This is what makes symbolic exclusion so effective. It does not need to ban anyone. It only needs to determine who appears closer to the norm.
Almost ironically, Sofia Pride offers its opponents an easy framework for constructing the reverse. Its programme included international DJs, house and techno, while the official after-party even promised “Berlin club energy”.[4] This aesthetic connects Pride to a recognisable European and cosmopolitan code, but at the same time makes it easier to portray it as something coming from outside. Sofia Pride has been held since 2008, has acquired a Bulgarian history of its own and mobilises local artists, organisations and citizens.[5] Nevertheless, the international language and aesthetic that increase its visibility also provide the material through which its local legitimacy can be challenged. It is a particularly effective political reversal: something can exist in Sofia for almost two decades and still be presented as “imported”, as long as it sounds and looks international enough.
Of all the sounds that day, perhaps the most politically charged was the one that did not sound like a political slogan at all. The participation of the National Guard Band in the March for the Family followed an official request by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and was authorised by the Minister of Defence. Particularly significant is the explanation later provided by the ministry itself. The band, it stated, traditionally participates in events associated with Bulgarian statehood, history and spiritual traditions.[6] It is precisely this pre-existing symbolic charge that gives its presence a different weight. A military march does not function like a song on a private playlist. It already carries the memory of ceremonies, national anniversaries and state representation. It does not need to declare a cause official in order to lend it something of the sound of officialdom. For a few hours, a social stance was not merely heard as an opinion. It was heard through a sonic vocabulary that citizens have learned to associate with the state itself.
Demography provides this politics with a particularly powerful backdrop because demographic decline is real. At the end of 2025, Bulgaria had 6.42 million inhabitants, around 14,000 fewer than a year earlier, while almost one in four residents was over the age of 65.[7] The figures justify serious discussion about the country’s demographic future. They do not, however, dictate which form of family constitutes the solution. This is where statistics can easily be turned into a moral narrative. A complex problem in which ageing, migration, regional inequalities, incomes and access to care intersect acquires a much clearer political protagonist: the “traditional family”. There is even a small irony in the data themselves. In 2025, 61.5% of children in Bulgaria were born outside legal marriage.[8] The country being called upon to save itself through a particular family model has long since ceased to live exclusively within it.
After the march, the Church itself changed the terms of the confrontation. Patriarch Daniil announced that from 2027 the Bulgarian Orthodox Church would take full responsibility for organising the event and that the March for the Family would no longer be held on the same day as Sofia Pride. He explained that the aim was neither confrontation nor the stigmatisation of anyone.[9] For six years, the coincidence of dates had allowed the march to define itself partly through what it opposed. Changing the date attempts something different: to give it its own calendar, its own ritual and an identity that does not need Pride as a permanent opponent. If successful, the family will no longer be presented only as a position to be defended, but as a public ritual in its own right.
The boundary becomes clearer in law. Article 46 of the Bulgarian Constitution defines marriage as a “free union between a man and a woman”, and in 2026 Bulgaria still does not recognise same-sex marriage or registered partnerships.[10] In ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map 2026, Bulgaria ranks 40th among 49 countries with a score of 20%, the second-lowest in the EU,[11] while one of the key recommendations to the country remains the legal recognition and protection of same-sex couples.[12] Yet on the same day, Sofia Pride went ahead as planned, in coordination with the Municipality and under heightened police protection, with controlled entry points and security checks.[13] The picture, then, is not one of a state that simply excludes. It is more contradictory, and therefore more interesting. Public LGBTI+ presence is protected as an exercise of freedom of assembly, while the family relationship remains outside full legal recognition. This creates a less visible hierarchy of belonging. When a minority requires a special security regime in order to occupy the same public space as everyone else, its protection is simultaneously an indication that its social presence has not yet become entirely ordinary. At that point, security ceases to be merely a technical measure and becomes a political indicator, expressing which form of difference appears in public space as a security exception.
The intention of the institutions may indeed be to defend the family rather than reject LGBTI+ people. In public space, however, intention does not fully control the message. The freedom to defend a traditional understanding of the family is just as fundamental as the freedom of an LGBTI+ citizen to live openly without feeling that their equality is put up for negotiation each time. The most dangerous consequence is becoming accustomed to the idea that these are goods to be divided between opposing camps. They are not. A democracy begins to fail when it convinces its citizens that protecting one requires calling the other into question.
Perhaps, then, the most substantive problem lies even before the conflict between the two marches. Socially sensitive issues, from the rights of LGBTI+ people to new forms of family and the experience of a younger, more internationalised generation, have entered Bulgarian society much faster than they have entered its political vocabulary. The absence of adequate education, public policy and systematic institutional engagement ultimately shifts the negotiation of these changes onto the street.[14] The need for such intense public visibility does not show only that some are claiming space. It also reveals how little space these issues have already secured within institutions. The image of Sofia is therefore more revealing than simply polarised. The deeper divide in Bulgaria today lies not only between “tradition” and “progress”. It lies between a society that has already changed and a political system that is still searching for the language, as well as the tools, to deal with what that society has become.
Notes
- Bulgarian Orthodox Church–Bulgarian Patriarchate, “Шествие за семейството ще се проведе в столицата,” June 12, 2026, https://bg-patriarshia.bg/news/shestvie-za-semeystvoto-shte-se-provede-v-stolitsata; Metodi Yordanov and Yoana Hristova, “Family March Draws Supporters of Traditional Family Values in Sofia,” Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), June 13, 2026, https://www.bta.bg/en/news/bulgaria/1146899-family-march-draws-supporters-of-traditional-family-values-in-sofia. ↩
- Metodi Yordanov, “Sofia Hosts Parallel Pride and Family Marches as Orthodox Church Opposes Sofia Pride 2026,” Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), June 13, 2026, https://www.bta.bg/en/news/bulgaria/1146896-sofia-hosts-parallel-pride-and-family-marches-as-orthodox-church-opposes-sofia-p. ↩
- Nelly Zheleva and Atanas Malakchiev, “Progressive Bulgaria Supports Holding of Annual March in Support of Traditional Family,” Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), June 12, 2026, https://www.bta.bg/en/news/bulgaria/1145847-progressive-bulgaria-supports-holding-of-annual-march-in-support-of-traditional- ↩
- Sofia Pride, “Program,” accessed September 3, 2026, https://en.sofiapride.org/program/ ↩
- Sofia Pride, “About the Pride,” accessed September 3, 2026, https://en.sofiapride.org/about-the-pride/ ↩
- Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Bulgaria, response to access-to-public-information request no. 1781393846-14.06.2026, June 19, 2026, Council of Ministers Public Information Access Platform, https://pitay.government.bg/application/20090/view ↩
- National Statistical Institute of the Republic of Bulgaria, Population and Demographic Processes – 2025 – Final Data, April 29, 2026, 1, https://www.nsi.bg/en/file/35195/population_and_demographic_processes%20EN.pdf. ↩
- National Statistical Institute of the Republic of Bulgaria, Population and Demographic Processes – 2025 – Final Data, April 29, 2026, 5, https://www.nsi.bg/en/file/35195/population_and_demographic_processes%20EN.pdf. ↩
- Momchil Rusev and Metodi Yordanov, “Holy Synod Opposes Holding of Sofia Pride 2026,” Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), June 13, 2026, https://www.bta.bg/en/news/1146812-holy-synod-opposes-holding-of-sofia-pride-2026. ↩
- National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria, Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, art. 46(1), accessed September 3, 2026, https://www.parliament.bg/en/const; ILGA-Europe, “Bulgaria,” Rainbow Map 2026, accessed September 3, 2026, https://rainbowmap.ilga-europe.org/countries/bulgaria/ ↩
- ILGA-Europe, Rainbow Map 2026 (Brussels: ILGA-Europe, May 12, 2026), 3, https://www.ilga-europe.org/report/rainbow-map-2026/?print=pdf ↩
- ILGA-Europe, “Bulgaria,” Rainbow Map 2026, accessed September 3, 2026, https://rainbowmap.ilga-europe.org/countries/bulgaria/ ↩
- Metodi Yordanov and Desislava Peeva, “Sofia Pride Held with Calls for Equality, Freedom and Acceptance,” Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), June 13, 2026, https://www.bta.bg/en/news/1146831-sofia-pride-opens-with-calls-for-equality-freedom-and-acceptance ↩
- European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, EU LGBTIQ Survey III: LGBTIQ Equality at a Crossroads: Progress and Challenges, Country Data – Bulgaria (Vienna: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2024), 2–3, https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/lgbtiq_survey-2024-country_sheet-bulgaria.pdf. ↩
Bibliography
Bulgarian Orthodox Church–Bulgarian Patriarchate. “Шествие за семейството ще се проведе в столицата.” June 12, 2026. https://bg-patriarshia.bg/news/shestvie-za-semeystvoto-shte-se-provede-v-stolitsata.
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. EU LGBTIQ Survey III: LGBTIQ Equality at a Crossroads: Progress and Challenges. Country Data – Bulgaria. May 14, 2024. https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/lgbtiq_survey-2024-country_sheet-bulgaria.pdf.
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National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria. Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria. Accessed September 3, 2026. https://www.parliament.bg/en/const.
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Rusev, Momchil, and Metodi Yordanov. “Holy Synod Opposes Holding of Sofia Pride 2026.” Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), June 13, 2026. https://www.bta.bg/en/news/1146812-holy-synod-opposes-holding-of-sofia-pride-2026.
Sofia Pride. “About the Pride.” Accessed September 3, 2026. https://en.sofiapride.org/about-the-pride/.
Sofia Pride. “Program.” Accessed September 3, 2026. https://en.sofiapride.org/program/.
Yordanov, Metodi. “Sofia Hosts Parallel Pride and Family Marches as Orthodox Church Opposes Sofia Pride 2026.” Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), June 13, 2026. https://www.bta.bg/en/news/bulgaria/1146896-sofia-hosts-parallel-pride-and-family-marches-as-orthodox-church-opposes-sofia-p.
Yordanov, Metodi, and Yoana Hristova. “Family March Draws Supporters of Traditional Family Values in Sofia.” Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), June 13, 2026. https://www.bta.bg/en/news/bulgaria/1146899-family-march-draws-supporters-of-traditional-family-values-in-sofia.
Yordanov, Metodi, and Desislava Peeva. “Sofia Pride Held with Calls for Equality, Freedom and Acceptance.” Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), June 13, 2026. https://www.bta.bg/en/news/1146831-sofia-pride-opens-with-calls-for-equality-freedom-and-acceptance.
Zheleva, Nelly, and Atanas Malakchiev. “Progressive Bulgaria Supports Holding of Annual March in Support of Traditional Family.” Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), June 12, 2026. https://www.bta.bg/en/news/bulgaria/1145847-progressive-bulgaria-supports-holding-of-annual-march-in-support-of-traditional-.
Author Bio
Evelina Soukou is completing her MA in Peace, Security and Development in Belgrade. Her research interests focus on the Western Balkans, identity politics, social cohesion, and the relationship between political institutions and societal change.