Ex-Prime Minister Boiko Borissow or the entertainer Slawi Trifonow - it's a head-to-head race.
The official final result will be a long time coming, however.
Sofia - After the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, a victory of the populist party ITN (“There is such a people”) of the entertainer Slavi Trifonov is looming.
According to an official interim result, the populists were in first place with 23.91 percent, ahead of the bourgeois party GERB (23.69) of ex-Prime Minister Boiko Borissow.
This was announced by the Central Election Commission (ZIK) after counting 98.92 percent of the votes from within Germany and 82 percent from abroad.
The official final result is to be published on July 18th.
Trifonow's ITN party, which was founded in 2020, is not represented in the EU Parliament, while Borissov's GERB belongs to the European People's Party (EPP) - as do the German CDU and CSU.
The ITN aims to introduce majority voting in order to change the system of the old party elite.
According to the interim result, the opposition socialists (ex-KP) came third with 13.51 percent.
It was considered certain that two more protest forces would move into parliament in Sofia: the conservative-liberal-green coalition Democratic Bulgaria DB (12.56 percent) and “Stand up!
Mafiosi out! ”(5.03 percent).
A total of six parties have overcome the four percent hurdle.
In contrast, the nationalists failed.
With this distribution of forces, the anti-Borisov camp failed to gain an absolute majority in parliament.
His opponents rule out a collaboration with Borisov's GERB, as they accuse Borisov's former coalition government of corruption.
Borissov is unlikely to find a partner to govern again.
dpa