Bulgaria heading for early election as Borissov fails to secure majority

Bulgaria is heading for its seventh general election in three years after former prime minister Boyko Borisov’s ruling GERB (EPP) party failed to secure the parliamentary majority needed to form a regular government.

Although GERB won the 9 June elections with 24.71% of the vote, the party did not secure a majority in the 240-seat parliament to form a government.

While the party was expecting to rely on There is Such a People (ITN) led by former TV presenter Slavi Trifonov, as it already secured backing from the Turkish minority party Movements for Rights and Freedoms DPS (Renew Europe) – support that secured 115 of the 121 seats needed to form a government – Trifonov, in a surprise move, announced on Wednesday evening that his party would not support the government proposed by GERB and DPS.

Instead, Trifonov suggested his party would propose a government of experts that would get the backing of GERB and DPS.

“I expect that the third mandate to form a government will come to ITN, and then we will propose an expert government to do certain important things for the country at a certain time. And if the mandate comes to us, I suggest that all political parties support such a government if they do not want us to go to elections in the autumn,” Trifonov said.

However, Borissov has rejected such a proposal so far, claiming that only his party can form a government or the country goes to early elections.

But ITN showed some softening of its stance on Thursday as it backed GERB’s proposed National Assembly Speaker Raya Nazaryan.

“The election of Raya Nazaryan as speaker of the National Assembly gives the green light to the constitutional procedures (for forming a government). We are concentrating on the first mandate, which is the only one possible. We have a negotiating team and a sense of policy,” Borissov said.

According to the constitution, the president gives the mandate to form a government to the largest parliamentary force. If this fails, the party with the second mandate will have a shot at doing the same. If this also fails, the president chooses which political force, however large, will be given the third mandate.

In addition to GERB, DPS and ITN, the pro-Russian BSP and Vazrazhdane (Renaissance), as well as the new radical party Greatness, entered parliament.

The pro-European coalition PP-DB, which was governed by the support of GERB and DPS before the elections but disagreed with them on cabinet rotation, is also represented in Parliament.

With 39 MPs, the PP-DB is now the third largest parliamentary force, but it remains in opposition, promising to expose the abuses of GERB and DPS.

Bulgaria has been experiencing somewhat of a political crisis since 2021, with voters going to the polls six times in three years. This has also led to a decline in voter turnout, with the combined early parliamentary and European elections on 9 June reaching an all-time low of 34%.

It is predicted that in the event of early elections, voter turnout will fall even further, creating huge risks for radical and pro-Russian formations to enter the Bulgarian parliament.

The current political situation puts strong cards in the hands of President Rumen Radev, who has a great chance of governing the country if he enters party politics. He opposes military aid to Ukraine and often repeats the narrative of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)

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