Page 71 - bne_May 2021_20210501

bne May 2021
Opinion 71
BALKAN BLOG:
Few routes to power in Bulgaria’s fragmented new parliament
Denitsa Koseva in Sofia
"Alone like a dog” and delivering a swan song even though he “looks less and less like a swan” were some of the scathing comments made after Gerb
leader and long-serving Prime Minister Boyko Borissov addressed Bulgarians the day after the April 4 general election.
Rather than facing awkward questions on his party’s poor performance at a press conference, Borissov made his statement in a video posted on Facebook, standing in the yard of his home under falling snow. While he spoke bullishly of Gerb’s election victory, it was widely commented that Borissov seemed abandoned and alone.
Once a highly popular leader and Bulgaria’s only prime minister to serve for three terms, Borissov’s third term was marred by scandal after scandal – from the “Apartmentgate” revelations of luxury properties bought at suspiciously low prices by high-ranking officials to the pictures of a gun, cash and gold bars mysteriously photographed from inside the prime minister’s bedroom. Along with the heavy toll the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has taken on Bulgaria and mass anti- government protests through the summer and autumn of 2020, this contributed to the fall in Gerb’s share of the vote to just 26.12%, leaving it as the largest party in the new parliament but with no obvious routes to forming a new government.
Looking at the data from the central election committee with 96.35% of all votes counted, the chances of any party being able to form a majority coalition in the fragmented new parliament are slim. That leaves the possibility of either a technocratic government or another election in a few months, with the latter seen as the most realistic scenario (though Borissov clearly favours the former).
Limited options
Not only Gerb, but all three of Bulgaria’s main political parties – Gerb, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the ethnic-Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) – performed badly, but their new rivals that swiped a large share of the vote didn’t do well enough to form a new government either.
Gerb was followed by popular showman Slavi Trifonov’s There Are Such People with 17.81% of the vote. Trifonov’s newly
PM Boyko Borissov delivers a statement proposing a technocratic government.
minted party pushed the BSP down to third place with just 15% support. The DPS is fourth with 10.14%, followed by centre-right reformist Democratic Bulgaria with 9.54% and Stand up! Thugs out! with 4.78%. Gerb’s former far-right junior coalition partners will not pass the 4% threshold and therefore will have no MPs in the new parliament.
This result leaves Gerb with virtually no chance to form another government unless it manages to form a broad coalition with
its old rival the BSP and the DPS, which informally supported Borissov’s last government and has previously been in coalition with the BSP. However, most parties have ruled out cooperation with Borissov’s party and in his first public statement after the vote he proposed a technocratic government to lead the country out of the coronavirus pandemic by the end of 2021 and oversee the management of the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery funds.
“We accept the definite victory in the election as a vote of confidence by the people that it is exactly us who must return Bulgaria to the path of growth. We have never escaped from responsibility, we shall not do it now. I expect to see whether the parties with lower electoral support, who allow themselves to speak on behalf of the people, really do care for the people. Because if they do, we should join forces and defeat the pandemic,” Borissov said in the video statement.
Speaking after dozens of protesters gathered in front of Gerb’s headquarters in Sofia, Borissov said (possibly joking) “We
can have 20 – 30 –50 young and strong Gerb sympathisers to chase you” before adding “I propose you peace. I propose to install the experts who will take responsibility and do what
is necessary to take the country out of the coronacrisis by December.”
According to political analysts, the scenario of a technocrat government is highly unlikely as Gerb would have a very hard time securing the votes of 121 out of Bulgaria’s 240 MPs, Teneo analysts noted.
If Gerb fails to form a government seven days after receiving a mandate, it will be given to Trifonov. He has not yet commented on the election result but said previously that he sees only
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