Bulgaria: GERB Wins, but Still Will Be Difficult to Govern

The conservative GERB party, led by Bojko Borisov, the former mayor of Sofia, won the elections held in Bulgaria on October 27. But this time too, governing will not be easy because of the fragmentation of the political spectrum in a country that is holding its seventh election in just three years: and this time 8 different parties exceeded the 4% threshold.

Bulgaria’s Central Election Commission announced the final results with GERB in the lead with 642,931 votes, corresponding to 26.4% of the vote, followed by the coalition Continue Change – Democratic Bulgaria (WCC-DB) with 346,063 votes, corresponding to 14.2% of the vote. Revival (Vazrazhdane) received 325,468 votes (13.6%), while the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – A New Beginning (DPS-Peevski faction) received 281,366 votes with 11.548%. The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP – United Left) received 7.6% with 184,403 votes, while the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (DPS-Dogan) followed with 7.5%. Finally, rounding up the list are People Exist (TISP) with 6.8% of the vote, Morality, Unity, Honor (MECH) (4.6%), and Greatness (Velichie) just below the 4% threshold: with 97,430 votes it stopped at 3,999%.

Thus, the 240 seats in the chamber are highly fragmented, and political analysts actually agree that this time too, as in the last seven election rounds, negotiations to form a governing coalition will be extremely difficult.