Bulgaria appears headed for another round of early elections after an alliance of liberal parties led by former prime minister Kyril Petkov announced they were abandoning an alliance with a conservative alliance led by Boyko Borisov, also a former prime minister. – minister

“We have decided not to support the government with a mandate or with the participation of the GERB party,” said Asen Vasyliev, co-leader of the “We Continue Changes” (PP) party, referring to the party founded and led by Borisov, according to the EFE agency, Agerpres writes .

“Our decision is based on a difference in values. Bulgarians must be sure that when they vote for us, we promise what we do,” added another NP co-leader, former prime minister Petkov, who was fired last year. in June due to a vote of no confidence initiated by GERB.

The alliance formed between the PP and the Democratic Bulgaria (DB) formation won 24.6% of the vote in the April 2 special parliamentary elections, compared to 26.5% for the alliance between GERB and the Union of Democratic Forces (SDS).

The PP-DB alliance, the party born precisely during the protests against Boyko Borisov in 2021, focused its election program on anti-corruption messages and criticism of the closeness of the GERB party and Borisov himself to local mafias and oligarchs.

With respectively 64 and 69 seats in the parliament after the fifth round of legislative elections in the last two years, neither PP-BD nor GERB-SDS blocs can form a parliamentary majority with any of the other four constituent parties. parliament, these are the nationalist and anti-Western party “Renaissance” (Vazrazhdane), the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS – the party of the Turkish minority), the Socialist Party (SPB) and the anti-system party “There is such a people”. ” (ITN).

Borysov, whose party that won the election should receive the first mandate from President Rumen Radev to try to form a government, on Wednesday called on Petkov’s liberal bloc to unite with him to form a stable majority, threatening that otherwise GERB would not vote against the draft budget for this year.

Rejecting this proposal, Petkov said that if Borisov fails to form a government, his pro-European alliance will propose a minority executive body.

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