{"id":382427,"date":"2024-08-06T10:45:52","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T08:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/08\/06\/bulgaria-settime-elezioni-anticipate\/"},"modified":"2024-08-14T15:19:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T13:19:12","slug":"bulgaria-seventh-early-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/08\/06\/bulgaria-seventh-early-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"And that’s seven. Government negotiations fail again, Bulgaria in the abyss of early elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – There is no more hope for Bulgaria, which, following a script seen time after\u00a0time,\u00a0will have to hold the umpteenth early elections, the seventh in three and a half years<\/strong>. Having failed three rounds of mandates to try to form a coalition government, the president of the Republic, Rumen Radev<\/strong>, will now have to summon voters to the polls within the next two months after appointing an interim government to carry on ordinary\u00a0business;\u00a0the only type that\u00a0Sofia can now manage at the governmental level.<\/p>\n

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\"Boyko<\/a>
The leader of Bulgaria’s conservative Citizens for European Development (GERB) party, Boyko Borissov (credits: Nikolay Doychinov \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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The political chaos<\/a>\u00a0emerged in the weeks following the June 9 vote<\/a> (coinciding with European elections). Despite taking first place at the polls, the conservative GERB<\/strong> (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, a member of the European People’s Party) party of former premier Boyko Borissov<\/strong>, failed to complete negotiations with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms <\/b>(DPS, part\u00a0of the Alde family of European Liberals) and the populist right-wing There are Such\u00a0a People<\/strong>\u00a0(ITN), which\u00a0joined the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)<\/a> group in the EU Parliament. An empty mandate followed for the real losers in the sixth early elections since April 2021 (despite being the second largest force in Parliament), the liberals of\u00a0 We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, which had no significant interlocutors after it\u00a0withdrew support in spring to a coalition government with GERB<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Bulgaria<\/a>
Bulgarian president, Rumen Radev<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

What drove voters to the seventh early elections in three-and-a-half years was the mandate put back into the hands of President Radev by the ITN\u00a0populists led by showman Slavi Trifonov<\/strong> after finding a lack of support for a right-wing executive. “The electoral spiral continues to rage and not only causes irritation, but also unlocks a series of destructive processes, the blocking of various institutions, and the alienation of citizens<\/strong>,” is the lunge of the head of state, who urged<\/a> the parties to find a solution to the political crisis: “They must accept that the basis for creating a successful coalition is not after the elections but before them.”<\/p>\n

One of the most pressing issues leaders of the major parties will have to address is the citizens’ discontent, with no light at the end of the tunnel of early elections for more than three years. The data speak for itself: in April 2021, turnout stood at 50.61 percent, while in June 2024, it plummeted to 34.41 percent<\/strong>. President Radev is now called upon to appoint an interim prime minister to succeed the former president of the Sofia Court of Accounts, Dimit\u0103r Glav\u010dev<\/strong>, who was mandated to temporarily lead Bulgaria\u00a0from April 6<\/a>, also on the international stage and in Brussels. After that, voters will be called to the\u00a0polls\u00a0at a date within the next two months<\/strong>, according to the provisions of the national Constitution. It\u00a0would mean mid\/late October at the latest, precisely three and a half years since the first of seven rounds of elections in the European Union’s most fragile country.<\/p>\n