Seventh Parliamentary Elections in Bulgaria in Three Years: Borisov’s Conservative GERB Faction Leads in Preliminary Results

Bulgaria held its seventh general election in three years last night. Preliminary results indicate another victory for the conservative party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. According to the preliminary results of the partial vote count by the State Election Commission, Borisov's GERB won 26.08% of the vote.

It was followed by the reformist coalition We Continue to Change (PC) with 14.76% and the pro-Russian ultranationalist party Vozrozhdenie (about 13.8%).

Voter turnout was 38%.

The GERB is likely to win around 74 seats in the 240-seat parliament, while the PP may win 42 seats and the Revival 36 seats respectively. This is according to exit polls.

Sunday's vote was called after the seven groups elected in the June vote failed to form an effective coalition.

Since 2020, Bulgaria has been ruled by governments that did not last long, when anti-graft protests helped to break up the GERB-led coalition.

Previously, sociologists had ‘predicted’ that the main pro-Russian party, Vozrazhdenie, would have a good chance of becoming the second-largest bloc in the legislature. However, reality and exit polls showed a much weaker result.

Vozrazhdane wants Bulgaria to lift sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and stop providing aid to Kyiv, as well as to question the country's NATO membership. It gained prominence after a Russian-inspired law banning ‘LGBTQ propaganda’ was proposed in August and passed by a majority in parliament.

In contrast, the We Continue to Change/Democratic Bulgaria political bloc, which seeks to strengthen the country's position in the EU, has performed better than expected.

Bulgaria has been a member of the EU since 2007. However, it has recently risked losing billions of euros in EU recovery funds due to a lack of reforms.