The conservative Citizens for European Development (GERB) party led by former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov won parliamentary elections in Bulgaria on Sunday. But far from the majority and with liberal Kiril Petkov’s bloc We Continuing Change (PP) close behind. That means a fifth election in two years is unlikely to be enough to break Bulgaria’s political stalemate and open the door to a new technocratic caretaker government – one that can clear the 2023 budget and implement the reforms needed for country’s euro membership. sixth trip to the polls.
GERB, in conjunction with the Union of Democratic Forces, had 26.51% of the vote, according to official results after the end of the count (the numbers should be validated by the weekend). The centrists of Petkov, a businessman who graduated from Harvard and even ruled for a few months in 2022, affiliated with Democratic Bulgaria (right), got 24.54%. The difference was less than 50,000 votes.
In previous parliamentary elections, in October 2022, Borisov’s party had won another five percentage points but failed to form alliances to govern. After ten years in power, at the head of an executive that was marked by charges of corruption, The 63-year-old former prime minister fell into the middle of protests at the end of 2021 and has been politically isolated ever since. One of the main reasons for the political impasse is the personal animosity between Borisov and Petkov, which prevents an agreement in the poorest country in the European Union.
The ultra-nationalist pro-Russian party Vazrajdane (Renaissance) became the third political force in the Parliament where there are 240 seats, with 14.15% of the vote, an increase of almost a hundred thousand votes compared to October. Three other parties will have seats in parliament: the Movement for Rights and Freedoms with 13.72%, the Bulgarian Socialist Party with 8.94% and the populist There is such a people with 4.11%.
President Rumen Radev, a pro-Russian who opposes sending arms and ammunition to help Ukraine, is expected to call on Borisov to form a government. But the lack of agreement could lead to a new interim director, appointed by the same Radev, with new elections possible as early as the summer.
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Source: DN
