Today (April 19th) citizens of 🇧🇬 Bulgaria go to polls to vote in parliamentary elections… AGAIN. These are eighth parliamentary elections in Bulgaria in five years. However, this time it's not because of failure to form a government majority, but government actually resigning due to protests.
If you are interested, here is a link to our previous thread (Oct 2024), you can find link to earlier ones further in the post.
Bulgarian parliament (unicameral Narodno Subranie) consists of 240 members (121 needed for majority), elected by closed list proportional representation from 31 multi-member constituencies, with 4% electoral threshold, for a 4-year term.
Relevant parties or alliances taking part in the elections are:
| Name | Leader | Position | 2024 result | Recent polling | Result | Seats (change) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progressive Bulgaria (PB) | Rumen Radev | centre-left (populist) | new | 32-38% | TBA | new |
| GERB-SDS | Boyko Borisov | centre-right (conservative) | 25.5% | 19-21% | TBA | (66) |
| PP-DB | Asen Vasilev | centre (liberal) | 13.8% | 11-13% | TBA | (36) |
| DPS | Delyan Peevski | centre-right (Turkish minority) | 11.1% | 9-11% | TBA | (29) |
| Revival (V) | Kostadin Kostadinov | far-right (nationalist, pro-Russia, anti-vacc) | 12.9% | 6-7% | TBA | (33) |
| BSP-United Left | Krum Zarkov | centre-left (post-communist, social conservative) | 7.3% | 3-4% | TBA | (19) |
| Sword (MECh) | Radostin Vasilev | right-wing (national conservative, pro-Russia) | 4.5% | 3-4% | TBA | (11) |
| Shining | Nikolay Popov | anti-corruption | new | 3-4% | TBA | new |
| There Is Such People (ITN) | Slavi Trifonov | right-wing (national conservative) | 6.6% | 1-3% | TBA | (17) |
| Greatness | Ivelin Mihaylov | right-wing (nationalist, pro-Russia) | 3.9% | 1-3% | TBA | (10) |
| APS | Hayri Sadakov | centre-right (Turkish minority) | 7.2% | 1-2% | TBA | (19) |
Turnout in last (October 2024) election was only 38.8%, (other recent snap elections ended in 33-41%). During regular elections in 2013-2021, turnout used to be around 49-53%.
Official results will be available here.
Further reading
Of course, we shall leave detailed commentary (and any interesting trivia!) on elections, campaign, and whole situation, to our users.
Bulgarian snap parliamentary election, take seven
byu/pothkan ineurope
Posted by pothkan
10 Comments
Posting it here too so trolls cannot deny it !
Closing of Radev’s Campaign event yesterday from r/Bulgaria :
[https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fed0e4gu3tqvg1.jpeg](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fed0e4gu3tqvg1.jpeg)
Closing the event with photo of Radev – The National Traitor shaking hands with Vladimir Putin.
Rumen Radev also said out loud that Crimea is Russian.
Oof, 39% voter turnout seems abysmal. Is that normal for Bulgaria or is it because it was a snap election?
[deleted]
I see everyone dooming about this election but I don’t get how it’s a terrible thing that in a country that the far right was rising at an alarming rate, with literal fascist parties getting 20% of the vote, they will now be on the verge of missing parliament because a centre left, **less** pro Russia party will win in a landslide. Would I prefer if it was a pro EU party? Sure, but Bulgaria’s political system simply doesn’t allow for a pro EU majority without any problems. There’s a big pro EU block, but that block hates each other because over half of it is corrupt or comically corrupt in some cases. The fact that a party lead by someone who has said he won’t be more pro Russia than Babis, Fico and Magyar and who might have to depend on the most normal pro EU party to govern and that’s something he seems somewhat willing to do will win seems kinda best case scenario right now. Radev won’t be an Orban because not only he’s not as smart and good at politics he’s also not evil to that extent, he will be regular bad for eastern European standard, not a literal Russian and Trumpist agent in the midst of the EU. Hopefully a stable government dependent on PP-DB will give the pro EU camp time to recover but I think for now it’s good that the insane pro Russia fascist parties were eaten by an average pro Russia centrist.
Eight parliamentary elections in five years is not a democracy trying to find its way. It is a complete systemic collapse!
For everyone outside of the Balkans wondering how an EU and NATO member state is on the verge of electing a fiercely pro-Russian populist who literally closes his campaign rallies with pictures of Putin, you have to look at that abysmal 39% voter turnout.
Radev is not surging in the polls because the average Bulgarian suddenly loves the Kremlin. He is winning because the Bulgarian public is completely exhausted. When the pro-Western, pro-EU establishment is so comically corrupt that some of the leading opposition figures are literally sanctioned by the US and UK under the Magnitsky Act for massive graft, voters just give up and stay home.
And when 60% of the country stays home, the only people left voting are the hardcore nationalists and the organized, bought-and-paid-for voter blocks.
This is incredibly dangerous for the rest of Europe. With Viktor Orbán finally getting ousted in Hungary, Vladimir Putin is absolutely desperate for a new veto-wielding Trojan Horse inside the European Council to block aid and sabotage sanctions. Radev saw that job opening, stepped down from the presidency, and is now auditioning for the role.
This is the ultimate cautionary tale for the rest of the EU. If you let domestic corruption fester for too long, the voters will eventually get so apathetic that they will hand the keys of the country over to a foreign proxy just to spite the establishment.
So what are possible coalitions?
It seems like GERB-PP-DPS might have a majority as a broad pro-EU (as possible…) coalition, but that was the Denkov government that failed.
On the other hand Radev and Revival (+BSP if they get into parliament) might get a majority, would they work together, at least as a minority government?
If not where does Radev get his majority, getting a deal with the Turkish party? Promising domestic reforms to PP while also promising not to go full Fico abroad? I assume Radev-Borisov is a non-starter, or is that gonna be the corruption coalition?
I don’t know if it’s at all been talked about in the campaign and I suppose not knowing how to put together a government has been the whole problem for the last years, but I don’t see how that’s gonna change after this election.
I suppose it won’t.
See y’all next year at the next elections
Where can we watch vote presence and the results?
A turnout of 38.8%? No wonder the Bulgarian parliament does not possess a lot of legitimacy.
Why have the locals lost interest in expressing their will?
Has voting finished?