Surprising election result in Bulgaria

Parliamentary elections in Bulgaria that took place on Sunday 14 November, won Surprisingly enough from We Keep Change, an anti-corruption party founded by two economists, which did not even exist a few months ago. Sunday’s vote confirms the latest trend in Bulgarian elections Always keep some surprises.

More than half of the number “we keep changing” He got 25.4 per cent, while the centre-right party, Citizens for European Development in Bulgaria (GERB), which dominated the last years of Bulgarian politics and was also considered the favorite this time, stopped at 22.2 per cent. “Bulgaria has taken a new path,” Kirill Petkov, Minister of Finance of the outgoing Technical Government and one of the founders of the “We Continue to Change” organization jointly with economist Stefan Yaniv, declared.

The turnout was very low and several points lower than in the previous elections: Balkan Insight Writes That stopped at 39.1 percent.

Sunday’s election was the third in the past year, which proved very turbulent for Bulgarian politics. The first two, held in April and July, were won respectively by GERB and the party of comedian and TV presenter, Slavy Trifonov: neither of them managed to achieve a government majority.

Politico Writes That after the first polls after the poll, several parties that could form a government coalition with “We Continue to Change” have already come forward: among them are the Socialists, who won 10.3 percent, the Bulgarian Democratic Center Left Alliance and Trifonov’s Party, which from 25.4 percent of the penultimate elections had It fell to less than 10 per cent.

In all, the four parties received close to 51 percent of the vote, which could translate into a narrow parliamentary majority. In all likelihood, it will be Petkov who will seek the position of prime minister, as announced in the election campaign in recent weeks.

Petkov received a degree in economics from Canada and then Harvard, was a very charismatic, recently entered politics (the position of Minister of Economy was his first government position) and is one of the founders of the Study Center. Center for Economic and Competitiveness Strategy, affiliated with both Harvard University and Sophia University, as well as the owner of a company that produces plant products and probiotics.

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Petkov was able to play his first months in politics well, relying on corruption scandals involving GERB and its leader Bogko Borisov and on the mismanagement of various public contracts by his government: these were well-known cases and were reported by the press. Several occasions, but the fact that a member of the government brought it into the spotlight was a novelty that earned him a lot of support.

The presidential election was held on the same day: the favorite of recent days, outgoing President Rumen Radev, with the support of the Socialists, received 48.6 percent and in the polls next week he will face Anastas Gerdjikov of the Gerb Party, who received less than half of his votes. .

The final results of the parliamentary elections are likely to arrive on Tuesday.