Bulgaria will hold its seventh parliamentary elections in three and a half years on 27 October due to a lack of agreement between the political parties to form a government, the country’s president announced today.
‘I will issue a decree tomorrow [Tuesday] to hold elections on October 27,’ declared the head of state, Rumen Radev, alongside the interim prime minister, Dimitar Glavtchev, who is responsible for organizing the vote.
The conservatives led by former prime minister Boiko Borissov came first in the last elections, but the proposed government did not win the confidence of parliament.
Experts are not very optimistic about the outcome of the new elections against a backdrop of voter apathy, as only 34% went to the polls on 9 June, the lowest turnout since 1990.
A member of the European Union (EU) and NATO with a strategic border on the Black Sea, Bulgaria is going through a period of instability unprecedented since the end of communism, a stalemate that benefits parties favorable to Russia.
Shaken in the summer of 2020 by massive anti-corruption protests, the country ousted Borissov – who had led the country for almost a decade – from power in 2021, but has been unable to build a stable coalition ever since.
A short-lived coalition between conservatives and reformists was formed last year to show the country’s support for Ukraine in the face of the rise of pro-Russia forces. However, it only lasted nine months.
The current political deadlock has cost Bulgaria a postponement of its accession to the eurozone, delayed the granting of several billion euros in European funds and jeopardized full membership of the Schengen free movement area.
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