Bulgaria heads towards fourth election in 18 months

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev arrives at the Ifema congress centre on the last day of the NATO Heads of State summit in Madrid on June 30, 2022. AFP

SOFIA — Bulgaria headed towards snap elections on Wednesday after the latest bid to form a government failed, deepening a political crisis since the collapse of a reformist coalition in June.

The two largest parties — the liberal PP of outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and the conservative GERB of three-time former premier Boyko Borisov — have already twice failed to secure a governing majority in the 240-seat parliament.

President Rumen Radev then tasked the Socialists with a last-ditch attempt to piece together a ruling coalition and avoid what would be the fourth general election since April 2021 in the EU’s poorest member state.

But on Wednesday, they failed to convince lawmakers to vote on a proposed six-month programme for a new coalition government.

“In this situation, tomorrow we will return the mandate to President Radev unfulfilled,” Georgy Svilenski, the chief of the Socialists’ parliamentary group, told journalists.

Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Kiril Petkov answers journalists’ questions at the end of an European Union leaders summit in Brussels on June 24, 2022. AFP

Radev is then expected to dissolve parliament, appoint a caretaker administration and call new elections within a two-month deadline, most probably in early October.

Analysts predict, however, a new hung parliament that will make forming a government no easier.

Recent polls suggest that a new vote would return a badly fractured legislature, split between as many as seven parties, led by GERB with 21.5-23.6 percent and PP coming second with around 20.2-21.5 percent.

Renewed political instability risks exacerbating Bulgaria’s economic crisis with inflation at a 24-year high and the outgoing cabinet scrambling to secure alternative deliveries of natural gas after Russia turned the taps off over the war in Ukraine.

The lack of a functioning legislature will also jeopardize the country’s access to 5.7 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in EU recovery and resilience funds, and its plans to join the eurozone in 2024.

RELATED STORIES