Three parties neck-and-neck in race for second spot in Bulgarian elections

7 months ago 33

The battle for second place in Bulgaria’s upcoming early parliamentary elections in June will be tough, with the pro-European coalition of We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB), the party of the Turkish minority DPS, and the pro-Russian nationalist Vazrazhdane party appearing to be close, while GERB, the party of long-ruling ex-prime minister Boyko Borissov remains far ahead in top spot.

According to the latest poll results from Trend Agency, commissioned by Nova TV and 24 Hours Daily and presented on Wednesday, Borissov’s GERB party remains in the lead with 24.9% support, remaining stable in its polling numbers compared to recent trends.

At the same time, support for the PP-DB has fallen to 15.5%, bringing it very close to DPS and Vazrazhdane – who recently announced their ECR membership after a visit to Moscow at the invitation of Putin’s United Russia party – which currently stand at 14.4% and 14.2% respectively.

“The three formations are close and their performance in the upcoming election campaign will be key to the final order of second, third and fourth place,” the Trend analysis reads.

Until recently, although they were not in a formal coalition, Bulgaria’s pro-European and pro-NATO governments enjoyed the support of GERB, PP-DB and DPS.

In March, the former prime minister Nikolai Denkov (PP-DB) had to be replaced by the foreign minister and ex-commissioner Mariya Gabriel (GERB). However, the two parties disagreed on rotation, and Bulgaria is now heading for political instability and early elections, which will be held at the same time as the European elections.

The failure of the rotation is one explanation for the erosion in support for the PP-DB, which has dropped by 2% in the last month.

The PP-DB coalition seemingly pays the political price for agreeing to lead a joint government with GERB and DPS, previously the main targets of the pro-European coalition’s anti-corruption rhetoric.

The PP-DB is also the target of a criminal and political scandal related to corruption in the Bulgarian customs service.

Meanwhile, according to the same polls, the Bulgarian Socialist Party is polling at 9.1% of the vote and placing fifth, while the populist party of showman Slavi Trifonov, There is Such People, is sixth with 4.8%, just below the 5% threshold needed to have a representative in the European Parliament.

Furthermore, a record number of Bulgarians—6.9%—say that they will check “I do not support anyone” on the ballot papers, while only 49%, or about 2.8 million voters, say they will vote in the upcoming early parliamentary elections.

The electoral picture in the European elections is quite similar, with Trend reporting a slightly higher mobilisation of the PP-DB, which takes up to 16.1% of the vote, while the BSP’s result drops to 8.7% of the voters.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)