Parliamentary election in Bulgaria: entertainers in front of Borisov

According to forecasts, entertainer Slawi Trifonow won the election with his populist party ITN.

Will the pop-folk star now forge a government made up of opponents of the ex-prime minister?

Sofia - After the second parliamentary election in Bulgaria within a good 100 days, the opponents of the former Prime Minister Boiko Borissow can hope that a government will be formed. Forecasts see the populist party ITN of the entertainer Slavi Trifonov as the winner with a narrow lead over the party GERB of the ex-Prime Minister Borisov. The two other protest parties are also forecast to have improved their results compared to the April 4 election. The official final results should only be available within four days.

The system-critical ITN (“There is such a people”), which was only founded in 2020, received, according to estimates by three opinion research institutes, 22.8 to 24 percent of the votes on Sunday.

Borisov's GERB comes to 22.5 to 23.5 percent, followed by the socialists (ex-KP) with around 13 percent.

A total of six parties are to move into parliament again.

The nationalists could not overcome the four percent hurdle in this election either.

“The support ITN received is amazing,” wrote the entertainer Trifonow on Facebook.

The 54-year-old did not run in this election himself.

His party does not belong to any political family in the EU Parliament.

Among other things, she wants to introduce majority voting and drastically reduce state aid for the parties.

“There is such a people” could, according to the prognoses, together with the conservative-liberal-green anti-corruption coalition Democratic Bulgaria and the smaller “Stand up! Mafiosi out! ”Expect around 112 of the 240 parliamentary seats. But this means a minority government that would depend on the support of other parties - such as the socialists or the party of the Turkish minority DPS. The latter two have been described by the ITN as "parties of the status quo" of the old elites, with whom the Entertainer Party wants nothing to do. It was precisely for this reason that Trifonov refrained from forming a minority government in April. He wants to announce his specific plans this Monday.

If the prognoses are confirmed, this would be the first election defeat for Borisov's GERB since 2009 as well as the end of “Borisov's era”.

The GERB had won the election three months ago with a good 26 percent, but could not find any coalition partners because of the political isolation.

In the European Parliament, the GERB, like the CDU and CSU, belongs to the European People's Party (EPP).

Borisov's previous government - his third with a short break - had come under massive criticism for corruption allegations.

The interim government set up by the head of state Rumen Radew revealed numerous abuses, corruption practices and failures of the old GERB government.

According to the forecasts, voter turnout was very low at a good 38 percent for a parliamentary election. With a population of 6.9 million, only about 2.7 million voters are said to have cast their votes. Election researchers attributed this to, among other things, the election date in the middle of the holiday season and the action taken by the police against the illegal purchase of votes. dpa