Svetoslav TodorovSofiaBIRNJanuary 23, 202313:46A fifth election in two years looms in spring in Bulgaria, as the Socialist Party looks set to return its government-forming mandate .
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev arrives for two-day EU Council meeting in Brussels 20 October 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/STEPHANIE LECOCQ
Тhe Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, will return its government-forming mandate to President Rumen Radev on Tuesday, after failing to assemble a coalition, prompting a fifth general elections in Bulgaria in two years.
Snap elections will take place in late March or early April.
Bulgaria’s 2020-2021 political stalemate was temporarily solved by the establishment of Kiril Petkov’s reformist but shaky coalition government, led by his party, “We Continue the Change”.
But in June 2022, his coalition was ousted, after which ex-PM Boyko Borissov’s GERB came first in elections held in October.
However, after neither GERB nor “We Continue the Change” mustered a majority in the fragmented parliament, President Radev handed the third mandate to the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, his old allies – but with whom he’s been in tension in recent months.
Despite shared pro-Moscow leanings, the BSP has become increasingly critical of the President’s growing power.
“The other [party] leaders are finally realising that the model of the parliamentary republic is in danger”, Socialist leader Kornelia Ninova said on Sunday in a TV interview, referencing Radev’s mounting political ambitions.
Last week, meanwhile, relations warmed between the Socialists and their opponents in GERB and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
On January 20, Borissov even said that he could “imagine some kind of a government with the BSP” in the form of an “expert cabinet” which would then seek a majority.
In late 2022, GERB, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and the BSP all cooperated on amendments to the electoral code.
On Sunday, President Radev confirmed that Galab Donev, previously his social policy advisor, will extend his functions as a caretaker PM until May. This continues the trend of the President increasing his own power through a series of interim cabinets.
Radev used recent reports, most recently by German outlet Die Welt, on Bulgaria selling weapons to Ukraine through third parties in 2022, to criticise Petkov’s short-lived coalition for supporting Ukraine.
“Any weapons given to Ukraine is like extinguishing fire with gasoline,” Radev said on January 21, who severed previously friendly relations with Petkov after the onset of the war.
Radev’s pro-Kremlin leanings have become more apparent lately. In Bulgaria’s Twitter space, tagging and asking the President’s official account with the question: “Who does Crimea belong to?” (#ЧийЕКрим), has gone viral, referencing Radev’s November 2021 statement that Crimea is a Russian territory.
International criticisms intensify
Meanwhile, GERB, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev, seen as a protector of Borissov, were indirectly referenced by the US ambassador Hero Mustafa.
On Sunday, Mustafa criticised the Prosecution’s inactivity towards tBulgarian citizens sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act which include MP Delyan Peevski of Movement For Rights and Freedoms.
“In Bulgaria, the oligarchs have an extremely strong grip. They amass power through the politicians and keep it through economic means to keep their image clean,” she said on TV. “Real reform will happen only when there is a reform in the judicial sector and in the Prosecutor’s office as well.”
Recently, Bulgaria’s lack of political transparency was also criticised by GRECO, the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
