Stalemate after Bulgarian elections

A political stalemate is emerging in Bulgaria after Sunday's parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's liberal-conservative Gerb party secured the largest share of the vote with 26 percent, but it is clear that with its current coalition partners it won't secure a majority. At the same time other alliances seem barely feasible due to major differences. The press looks to Italy for solutions.

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Deutsche Welle (BG) /

New elections in a few months

The parties will never find a way out of this stalemate, Deutsche Welle's Bulgarian service fears:

“Due to the completely incompatible positions of most of the elected parties, practically all computationally possible options for forming a government coalition seem out of the question for political reasons. ... More realistic would be an expert government that is given a limited mandate to accomplish urgent tasks such as overcoming the pandemic. ... However, this option would run counter to the parties' election promises and require compromises that border on political suicide. So it won't be surprising if we face a snap election in a few months.”

Club Z (BG) /

We need our own Mario Draghi

Italy has shown how to overcome such a situation in times of crisis, writes Club Z:

“For the Italians, the lowest common denominator consisted of two parts: getting out of the pandemic and accepting the money that Europe prepared for them. The undisputed authority figure they entrusted with these tasks was Mario Draghi, until recently president of the European Central Bank. For Bulgaria, too, the lowest common denominator is probably the same. The only question is whether there are any such authority figures left in our country? Do we have a Bulgarian Mario Draghi?”