The pro-European centre-right GERB party has won the elections in Bulgaria but will have a hard time trying to form a government to end the political deadlock.
The NATO and EU member state held its seventh election in three-and-a-half years on Sunday, October 27th, and the results announced on Monday don’t suggest that a stable coalition can be formed, meaning another vote might be on the way early next year.
GERB, which was the dominant governing force in the 2010s, got 26.4% of the vote, which translates to 66 seats in the 240-seat parliament—far from enough for a comfortable majority.
The liberal, globalist, pro-EU We Continue the Change—Democratic Bulgaria (PP–DB) alliance, which emerged following the anti-corruption protests of 2020-21, came in second with 14.2% and 36 seats.
Third place went to the patriotic, eurosceptic, anti-vaccine Revival party, which has continuously grown in support amid the disenchantment with other parties. It has the support of 13.4% of the electorate, which gives the party 34 seats in the parliament.
Two parties that mainly rely on the votes of the Turkish ethnic community got 28 and 18 seats.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party, the successor of the old Communist Party, will have 19 seats, while the patriotic There Is Such A Party (ITN) will claim 17 seats.
Two anti-establishment populist parties, which were formed only recently, also made it into parliament: the socially conservative, Eurosceptic Morality, Unity, Honour won 12 seats, while the nationalist, anti-war Velichie (Greatness) got 10 seats.
The turnout was 37.5%, the second-lowest percentage since the end of Communism in 1991, signalling a deep distrust towards politicians and their inability to establish a stable government at a time when Bulgaria grapples with inflation, a stagnating economy, and has had to delay joining the euro zone.
Deep divisions between the parties have resulted in fragile governments and caretaker governments for the past three-and-a-half years.
Former Prime Minister and leader of the GERB party Boyko Borissov said he was ready to compromise to form a coalition with all other parties except Revival whose “pro-Russian” stances it doesn’t agree with. “We’re in the European family and I can’t allow this to happen,” he said.
Borissov will be the first to receive a mandate to form a government from President Rumen Radev. If Borissov fails to secure support, the mandate will be offered to the PP–DB alliance.