President 20 October - 21 November 2021
Following the November 2021 early parliamentary elections, seven political parties and coalitions gained representation: a new coalition We Continue the Change (PP), founded some two months before the November 2021 elections by two ministers of the May 2021 provisional government; coalition of Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria and Union of Democratic Forces (GERB-SDS), Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), BSP for Bulgaria (BSP), There is Such a People (ITN), Democratic Bulgaria (DB), and Vazrazhdane (Revival).3 After obtaining the highest number of seats, PP formed a government led by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov with the BSP, ITN, and DB. Subsequently, tensions emerged within the governing coalition, most notably related to sending arms to Ukraine and appointments of high-level public officials.
An election for the largely ceremonial post of president was also held on 14 November 2021. Should no candidate win more than 50 percent of the vote at the first round, a second round would be held a week later. Polls showed incumbent Rumen Radev, 58, was poised to win re-election for a second five-year term after a likely run-off vote on November 21. The president of Bulgaria is elected by absolute majority popular vote for a 5-year term. Bulgaria has gone through several political stages in its complicated history from the pro-Soviet communist years to becoming a member of the European Union following the end of the Cold War. Voters had shifted to anti-establishment parties like the ‘There is Such a People’ party and Democratic Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party’s national council voted on April 17 to endorse Roumen Radev for a second term as the country’s President. Radev, was elected head of state on a ticket backed by the BSP in November 2016. Radev ran as an independent candidate but was supported by Bulgarian Socialist Party and Alternative for Bulgarian Revival, founded by former president and Socialist Party member Georgi Parvanov. Radev won after polling 25.44 per cent of the vote in round one and then 59.37 per cent in the runoff with ruling centre-right GERB candidate Tsetska Tsacheva.
In August and September 2020, thousands of Bulgarians took to the streets to protest against the government and its policies. Protestors shook the country with demands for the immediate resignation of PM Boyko Borisov’s cabinet. President of the Republic Rumen Radev sided with the protestors. As clashes protract, people get used to them and infighting inevitably becomes ‘normal’. At the same time, extension and normalisation may lead to institutionalisation, with the risk of systemic President-PM rivalries. In Bulgaria there were now not just two personalities facing each other. There was a clash between the two mightiest institutions of the executive branch. Under these circumstances, the situation may easily overheat. Parliamentary elections may confirm GERB in power and either Radev or a like-minded figure could win the presidential contest. Then, Bulgaria could become much more unstable and polarised, with risks for economic recovery.
The leader of "There is such a people" [ITN] Slavi Trifonov in an extremely short statement on the party television "Seven Eights" announced ITN "will support Rumen Radev in the upcoming presidential elections in the autumn".
The country would hold a second round of presidential polls as voter turnout was only 33% and no candidate received more than half the votes, according to unofficial results. An exit poll by Alpha Research showed that incumbent President Rumen Radev, backed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), won 49.1% of the vote and advanced to the second round, which will be held on Nov. 21. Anastas Gerdzhikov, the rector of Sofia University, who was nominated by former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party, will compete with Radev in round two after receiving 26.5% of the vote. Mustafa Karadayi, head of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) party, the only candidate representing ethnic Turks and other Muslims, finished third with 9.8% of the vote.
Voters in Bulgaria cast their ballots again on 21 November 2021 in a run-off presidential election.
President Rumen Radev, a former fighter pilot, secured 49% in the first round and was considered the frontrunner. Radev had the backing of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, and was a fervent critic of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. Borissov was the leader of the center-right GERB party which has battled allegations of corruption. Radev has in the past sought to maintain close ties with Russia, but he seems to have turned around perceptions that he is pro-Russian. "Radev is no longer considered a Moscow man," Gallup analyst Parvan Simeonov said.
Radev's opponent, independent candidate Anastas Gerdzhikov, received only 23% of votes in the first round. Gerdzhikov is rector of the University of Sofia and is backed by Borissov's conservatives. The academic is a strong supporter of the country's Western alliances and supports reforming the country's judiciary and wants to improve the business environment.
Bulgaria's president gave the mandate to form a new government to the prime minister-designate, Kiril Petkov, after his anti-graft party sealed a coalition deal. Four political parties in Bulgaria reached an agreement for a governing coalition. Anti-corruption We Continue the Change (PP) party handed the draft government document to President Rumen Radev on 11 December 2021. PP won the latest election on November 14 with 25.67% of the vote, but it needed to secure coalition partners to govern. It did so with three other left-wing and center-right groups. Together, the four parties will control 134 seats in Bulgaria's 240-seat parliament.
Petkov, who is also the founder of a technology investment company, said the proposed four-party government would last four years. "It is time, after 32 years, that Bulgarians saw power-holders who care for them; it is time young Bulgarians abroad saw Bulgaria as a promising place to return to, and our parents saw Bulgaria as a place where they can have a worthy pension and live their old age with dignity," he said.
Among the priorities of the new government are a delayed judicial reform, the fight against corruption, plus tackling rising electricity prices and the coronavirus crisis. The country of 7 million has one of the world's fastest-shrinking populations, as well as the highest income inequality and the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate in the 27-nation European Union.
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