Bulgaria, plunged into an unprecedented political crisis, will hold its seventh legislative elections in three and a half years on October 27, due to the lack of agreement between political parties to form a government, the president announced on Monday.
“I will promulgate tomorrow [mardi] “A decree to hold elections on October 27,” said the head of state, Rumen Radev, alongside interim Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev, who is responsible for organizing the vote.
The conservatives led by former prime minister Boyko Borissov came out on top in the last vote, but the proposed government did not win the confidence of parliament.
And experts are not optimistic about the outcome of the new elections, against a backdrop of voter apathy: only 34% turned out to vote on June 9, the lowest turnout since 1990.
A member of the EU and NATO strategically bordering the Black Sea, Bulgaria is going through a period of unprecedented instability since the end of communism, an impasse that benefits parties favorable to Moscow.
Shaken in the summer of 2020 by major anti-corruption protests, the country ousted Mr Borissov from power in 2021, having previously ruled for nearly a decade, but has failed to build a stable coalition since.
A short-lived coalition of conservatives and reformers emerged last year to show the country’s support for Ukraine in the face of rising pro-Russian forces. However, it lasted only nine months.
The current political deadlock has cost Bulgaria a postponement of its accession to the eurozone, delayed the allocation of several billion euros of European funds and compromised full accession to the Schengen free movement area.