Borissov fails to form government, dimming chances of avoiding snap vote

4 months ago 19

Bulgaria’s parliament on Tuesday rejected the government proposed by the country’s largest party, plunging the EU’s poorest country into another political crisis and greatly diminishing the prospects of avoiding the seventh general election in just over three years.

With 138 MPs against, 98 in favour and two abstaining, parliament rejected the government formation proposed by the GERB party of former prime minister Boyko Borissov that would have had his associate, Rosen Zhelyazkov, at its helm.

Now Bulgaria will enter a new election campaign phase with snap elections scheduled for autumn as “the political system in Bulgaria is stuck”, Borissov announced.

“We apologise to the people, we ask for the forgiveness of the Bulgarian citizens, we will appear before them again (at elections in autumn). I treat everyone with respect. I do not offend anyone. Let’s see each other after the elections because I do not believe this parliament will choose something. Let’s agitate, ask people for forgiveness,” said the GERB leader during the debate.

The biggest political news to accompany the parliamentary vote was the split in the country’s Turkish minority party, DPS (Renew Europe), the most stable political project in Bulgaria after the collapse of the totalitarian regime in 1989.

Behind the split is the conflict between the acting leader of the DPS, Delyan Peevski, and the party’s honorary chairman and founder, Ahmed Dogan.

Peevski, a businessman sanctioned by the US and UK for corruption, was installed by Dogan as leader of the DPS in late 2023, becoming the first ethnic Bulgarian to lead the party since its founding 34 years ago.

In the last parliamentary elections on 9 June, Peevski achieved his first success by making the DPS the second political force in the country with 17% support. After the elections, a process began to expel activists close to Ahmed Dogan, the ideological leader of the DPS, from the party.

On Wednesday, the day of the parliamentary vote to elect a new government, expelled DPS MP Ramadan Atalay, one of the party’s founders, announced that Ahmed Dogan insisted on not supporting the GERB government. Delyan Peevski publicly disagreed, declaring that DPS MPs would support a government as they would otherwise hand over power in the country to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The result of the split in the party was seen during the vote. The DPS was divided for the first time in its history – 30 of its MPs supported the government proposed by GERB, and 15 voted against it.

“The political crisis continues, and its solution requires not only putting aside personal and party interests but also adequacy,” commented President Rumen Radev after the events in parliament.

Parliament still has a slim chance of electing a regular government and avoiding another snap election in the autumn, the seventh in three and a half years.

The small populist party ITN has promised to propose a competent government and to negotiate with all parties if given a mandate by the president.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)