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Parliamentary elections were held in
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
on 4 April 2021 at the end of the term of
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
members elected in 2017. Parties in the governing coalition led by Boyko Borisov lost seats and no party leader was able to form a coalition government within the time limit. This triggered the
July 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election Snap parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 11 July 2021 after no party was able or willing to form a government following the April 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election, April 2021 elections.open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, par ...
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
from 31 multi-member constituencies ranging in size from 4 to 16 seats. The electoral threshold is 4% for parties, with seats allocated using the
largest remainder method The largest remainder method (also known as Hare–Niemeyer method, Hamilton method or as Vinton's method) is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. It contrasts with variou ...
.


Parties and coalitions

The incumbent government was a coalition between the conservative
GERB GERB ( bg, ГЕРБ, translation=coat of arms, acronym for Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) is a conservative, Populism, populist List of political parties in Bulgaria, political party which was the ruling party of Bulgaria betwee ...
party of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the nationalist
United Patriots The United Patriots (OP; bg, Обединени Патриоти; ОП, translit=Obedineni Patrioti; OP) was a nationalist electoral alliance in Bulgaria formed by three political parties: IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement (IMRO), Attack (unt ...
alliance (formed from
IMRO The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; bg, Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация (ВМРО), translit=Vatrešna Makedonska Revoljucionna Organizacija (VMRO); mk, Внатр ...
, Attack and the NFSB), with the support of the populist
Volya Movement Volya Movement ( bg, Движение Воля, translit=Dvizhenie Volya, lit=Will Movement) is a right-wing populist political party in Bulgaria. Before 2016, it was known variously as Today and Liberal Alliance. The party was established by B ...
. Together they held 132 out of 240 seats in the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
. During
The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...
' 2020 national meeting, the party representatives voted in favor of a coalition at "the next parliamentary election with the other two members of
Democratic Bulgaria Democratic Bulgaria ( bg, Демократична България, ДБ, ''Demokratichna Balgariya, DB'') is an electoral alliance in Bulgaria formed by three political parties – Yes, Bulgaria!, Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria and The Green ...
". The party representatives voted against a "coalition with any of the political parties in the current National Assembly" - namely,
GERB GERB ( bg, ГЕРБ, translation=coat of arms, acronym for Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) is a conservative, Populism, populist List of political parties in Bulgaria, political party which was the ruling party of Bulgaria betwee ...
, BSP, DPS, Volya and OP. The deputy chairman of ITN, Toshko Yordanov, said in an interview for the
Bulgarian National Radio Bulgarian National Radio ( bg, Българско национално радио, ''Bulgarsko natsionalno radio''; abbreviated to БНР, BNR) is Bulgaria's national radio broadcasting organisation. It operates two national and nine regional cha ...
, that the party "will not enter a coalition with GERB, DPS or BSP". The cochairman of Democratic Bulgaria, Hristo Ivanov, stated in an interview for bTV, that "there will be no coalition with GERB, whether with or without
Borisov Borisov or Borisova may refer to: Places * Barysaw, or Borisov, Belarus ** Borisov Arena, a football stadium ** Battle of Borisov, 1812 * Borisov, Volgograd Oblast, Russia * Borišov, a mountain in Slovakia * Borisova, Perm Krai, Russia * Bor ...
". The chairman of
Bulgaria for Citizens Movement Bulgaria for Citizens Movement ( bg, Движение „България на гражданите“, Dvizhenie „Bulgariya na grazhdanite“, Movement "Bulgaria of the Citizens") is a political party in Bulgaria, founded by former European ...
, Dimitar Delchev, announced that his party was joining Stand Up.BG during a public presentation of the citizens' platform at Slaveykov Square, in August 2020. The same was done by the chairman of Volt Bulgaria - Nastimir Ananiev, as well as the chairman of the party
Movement 21 Movement 21 ( bg, Движение 21, Dvizhenie 21, D21) is a political party in Bulgaria established in 2011, led by Tatyana Doncheva. History In April 2010, Tatyana Doncheva, a former BSP deputy and member of the party's National Council ...
-
Tatyana Doncheva Tatyana Doncheva Toteva ( bg, Татяна Дончева Тотева; born 28 January 1960) is a Bulgarian politician from the Movement 21 political party, of which she is the chairperson. She has been a member of four National Assemblies. - th ...
. The citizens' organization The System Kills Us announced their support for Nikola Vaptsarov as their representative within Stand Up.BG.


List

When only some of the leaders of a coalition are its official representatives, their names are in bold. All lines with a light gray background indicate support for a party or coalition that has been agreed upon outside of the official CEC electoral registration.


Opinion polls

The opinion poll results below were recalculated from the original data and exclude pollees that chose 'I will not vote' or 'I am uncertain'. Notes:

Graphical representation of recalculated data: ''Note: The above data does not include Barometer polls, due to claims by other pollsters and media that the agency only has one employee.''


Results


By constituency


Analysis

Both GERB and BSP had very poor results and there was a large turnover with a third of the seats taken by parties not represented in the previous parliament. A central theme in the election was purported corruption in the GERB-led government, which saw GERB lose seats and various anti-corruption parties gain, most notably Slavi Trifonov's ITN, but also DB and ISMV. The Bulgarian Socialist Party suffered from division between its leader Korneliya Ninova and other factions. The BSP recorded their worst-ever result in a democratic election. The far-right parties also suffered from splits, losing their representation in parliament; the Attack party and the two remaining parties from the
United Patriots The United Patriots (OP; bg, Обединени Патриоти; ОП, translit=Obedineni Patrioti; OP) was a nationalist electoral alliance in Bulgaria formed by three political parties: IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement (IMRO), Attack (unt ...
alliance (the
National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria The National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria ( bg, Национален фронт за спасение на България, Natsionalen front za spasenie na Bŭlgariya, NFSB), is an ultranationalist political party in Bulgaria. History ...
and
Volya Movement Volya Movement ( bg, Движение Воля, translit=Dvizhenie Volya, lit=Will Movement) is a right-wing populist political party in Bulgaria. Before 2016, it was known variously as Today and Liberal Alliance. The party was established by B ...
) contested the elections separately, with none winning a seat. The three combined results of the three parties suggested they could have crossed the electoral threshold if they had run together. The election happened during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, which necessitated a greater focus on online campaigning. Contrary to expectations, voter turnout was broadly unchanged.


Government formation

After his offer of a technocrat government was rejected by the opposition, Borisov said that as leader of the largest party, he would try to form a coalition government, and that he would also be open to supporting an ITN-led government. However, Borisov himself stated he would likely be unsuccessful in forming a coalition, with the likeliest outcomes being either a caretaker government followed by new elections or a coalition of parties new to Parliament. After former foreign minister
Daniel Mitov Daniel Pavlov Mitov ( bg, Даниел Павлов Митов; born 4 December 1977) is a Bulgarian politician. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria from 2014 to 2017. He became Minister of Foreign Affairs on August 6, 2014 in th ...
, whom Boyko Borisov had nominated as
GERB GERB ( bg, ГЕРБ, translation=coat of arms, acronym for Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) is a conservative, Populism, populist List of political parties in Bulgaria, political party which was the ruling party of Bulgaria betwee ...
's candidate for prime minister, failed to form a government, the mandate was then offered to
Slavi Trifonov Stanislav Todorov Trifonov ( bg, Станислав Тодоров Трифонов; born 18 October 1966), known as Slavi Trifonov ( bg, Слави Трифонов), is a Bulgarian TV host, musician and politician. Trifonov is mainly active i ...
's ITN. Chess grandmaster
Antoaneta Stefanova Antoaneta Stefanova ( bg, Антоанета Стефанова; born 19 April 1979) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and Women's World Champion from 2004 to 2006. She has represented Bulgaria in the Chess Olympiad in 2000 and the Women's Chess ...
, whom Trifonov appointed to take the mandate from president Rumen Radev immediately returned it in accordance with Trifonov's wish.
Korneliya Ninova Korneliya Petrova Ninova ( bg, Корнелия Петрова Нинова ) is a Bulgarian politician, MP from the parliamentary group of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). She has been the chairwoman of BSP since 8 May 2016. Biography K ...
of BSPzB formally received the final mandate from president Radev on 5 May 2021, but refused to form a government due to a lack of support from other parliamentary opposition parties. This triggered an early election (to be held on 11 July), and the president appointed a
caretaker government A caretaker government is a temporary ''ad hoc'' government that performs some governmental duties and functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed. Depending on specific practice, it usually consists of either randomly se ...
led by Stefan Yanev to run the country until the elections are over and a permanent administration is formed.


References

{{Bulgarian elections
Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
2021 04
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...