Bulgaria: sixth parliamentary election in three years
Bulgaria held its sixth parliamentary election in three years together with the European elections. Former prime minister Boyko Borisov's conservative Gerb party won, securing just over a quarter of the vote, followed by the Turkish minority party DPS. The reform-oriented PP, the party that formed the last government, only came third. Commentators still don't see an end to the deadlock.
No winners, only losers
The low voter turnout of 32.5 percent gives Capital pause for thought:
“Although technically speaking there were winners and losers in the snap parliamentary election, the result shows that in reality everyone lost. Fewer than 2 million voters went to the polls - almost 700,000 fewer than in the last election in April 2023. The refusal of such a large number of voters to exercise their right to vote has also led to a drop in support for all the major parties.”
This election could have been avoided
The government should have carried on instead of calling new elections, News.bg criticises:
“It would have been much better if the planned rotation between former prime minister Nikolay Denkov [PP-DB] and Maria Gabriel [of Gerb, who was supposed to succeed him] had gone ahead and Gerb and PP-DB's parliamentary majority had been maintained. Even if the functioning of this majority was problematic and at times quite nerve-wracking, it had its priorities and they had begun to implement them. Our country has significantly improved its position in the area of European policy.”