Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

The political roulette for Bulgaria’s new government under way

Photo: BGNES

Only after one day, on Monday, the GERB party which won the most votes in the elections is to start talks on forming a new government with the other seven formations in the future Parliament. Negotiations are to be held in two phases of seven days, with a very complex configuration of forces. The new Parliament will have twice as many political forces than in the previous one. Rightist GERB party will have in it five seats more than the total number of seats of the Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. Even before the talks GERB said it would not accept support from the MRF for its government. GERB believes that a broad coalition with the Socialists is not possible, like the existing European coalitions between right and left forces, as in the case of Bulgaria this time such a coalition government would be unstable because of the twice lower elections results of the Left.

The Socialists themselves are divided on whether to support the government of GERB and GERB believes that support without participation in the government would not be real support. GERB can count on real support by the five smaller parliamentary parties, but there the picture is unclear. There is a left formation – Alternative for Bulgarian Revival party, two nationalist – the Patriotic Front and Ataka, one that defines itself as centrist – the new party Bulgaria without Censorship, and one rightist formation – the Reformist bloc coalition. As a right formation the Reformist Bloc would support a cabinet composed of GERB, but one of its component forces - the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party insists that the Prime Minister's office should not be taken by the leader of GERB, Boyko Borissov. Borissov in his turn insists on being the prime minister. And so on and so forth…

On the eve of the upcoming talks, Borissov summarizes that the negotiating team of his party will be geared towards a coalition government composed of shared responsibility without BSP and MRF, and with a clearly signed agreement. Under the expression “a cabinet of the shared responsibility” Borissov means a government in which the coalition partners have their own ministers.

The task of drawing up the new cabinet is so complex that many people wonder if there is a solution at all. However, if a solution is not reached, the country would fall into an even more acute political crisis coupled with an economic crisis in winter. No matter how the prospective cabinet might be defined now, it is only possible as a cabinet of compromise.




Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Balkan developments

Albania to start substantive EU accession negotiations on 15 October The EU's permanent representatives in Brussels have unanimously decided to open accession negotiations with Albania. The process will start on 15 October with an EU-Albania..

published on 9/27/24 1:30 PM

Early elections ill-timed

From today, 27 September, Bulgaria is once again in a 30-day election campaign. 28 parties and 11 coalitions have registered with the Central Election Commission to take part in the next early parliamentary elections, and 19 parties and 9 coalitions..

published on 9/27/24 7:20 AM

Political instability is an external manifestation of the war between the oligarchs, says former prime minister Denkov

"Political instability is merely an external manifestation of the war between the oligarchic clans and those who control the captured state in their struggle for influence. We want to get rid of this model". This was said by Nikolay Denkov of "We..

published on 9/15/24 5:28 PM