Bulgarian Premier Wins Vote With Tough Path to New Government

Bulgaria’s ruling party, led by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, won Sunday’s elections, an exit poll showed, giving him a chance to secure a fourth term as leader of the European Union’s poorest and most corrupt member.

Already one of the block’s longest serving leaders, the former bodyguard of the Balkan state’s last communist dictator capitalized on support from conservative voters drawn to his brusque man-of-the-people style. Critics say he has done little to crack down on endemic graft or improve living standards for Bulgaria’s 7 million people.

Now he faces the thorny task of mustering support to form a coalition backed by a majority in parliament. The main rivals to Borissov’s Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria party, known as Gerb, have vowed not to cooperate with it -- or each other -- in any governing alliance.

Gerb won 25.7%, compared with 17.6% for the opposition Socialists, according to an exit survey from the Alpha Research pollster.

There Is Such a People, a newly formed group led by populist talk-show host Stanislav Trifonov, was third with 15.2%. The Movement for Rights and Freedoms, a party that traditionally represents ethnic Turks and acts as post-election kingmaker, had 11%, according to the Alpha poll.

Another survey by Sofia-based Gallup International showed Trifonov in second. As many as seven parties looked poised to enter parliament, according to both polls.

“In such a fragmented parliament, it’ll be very hard to get 120 lawmakers” to form a government, Boryana Dimitrova, a managing partner at Alpha Research, told BNT. “Either someone will have to cross boundaries and make compromises that were unacceptable until now, or the parliament will have a very short life.”

President Rumen Radev should first give a mandate to form a government to the election winner. If it fails, the second-biggest party gets a turn. If that doesn’t work, a third party, chosen by the president, is given a chance before a new election is called.

When he first took power in 2009, Borissov ruled with Gerb on its own without a parliamentary majority, while he cobbled together coalitions for his other two governments with smaller parties who went back on pledges to shun him.

In that time, he has faced scandals, allegations over ties to organized crime, street protests and feuds with the president and some of the country’s richest men. He even resigned twice. The country is also currently one of the world’s coronavirus hotspots — and the economy is taking a hit.

Transparency International ranks Bulgaria last in the EU for endemic graft, and the EU has criticized it for failing to uphold the rule of law. Meanwhile, gross domestic product per capita, when adjusted for relative purchasing power, is just over 50% of the EU average.

Still, Borissov has also been adept at balancing the nation’s interests between historical ally Russia and the West. He has embraced NATO and the EU while former eastern bloc peers Hungary and Poland engage in open conflict with Brussels.

His government also boasts one of the bloc’s lowest debt levels and narrow budget deficits. Borissov campaigned on keeping taxes low, improving the distribution of EU funds and adopting the euro in 2024, a process that, along with joining the EU’s passport-free Schengen travel zone, has been delayed by concerns over graft.

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