With the collapse of Kirill Petkov’s government, Bulgaria has entered a political turmoil and elections are being touted as a one-way street to break the deadlock. The country pays for the simple proportional electoral system and of course its own Populist, Slavi Trifonov.
Withdrawing his “There is such a people” party from the four-party government of pro-European Kirill Petkov, Trifonov caused its collapse and plunged the country into political chaos.
Given that the solution will be sought through recourse to the polls, Bulgaria will be the country that in 13 months will have held four parliamentary elections, without being sure that it will again emerge from the political crisis that plagues it.
The simple proportional electoral system prevents the formation of strong one-party governments, leaving the coalitions vulnerable to outside pressures and interventions. Which can be exercised by the President of the Republic, who in this case emerges as the main political pole of power and is considered a friend close to Russia, to business interests or even foreign circles (Russia), as he complained on the occasion of the resignation of the Harvard University graduate. Prime Minister Petkov.
The whole political unrest and crisis in Bulgaria, which intensified with the start of the War in Ukraine, has the scent of Northern Macedonia and the smell of Russian gas. Trifonov focused on the departure of his party and its four ministers, a move that led to the collapse of the ruling coalition in the fact that, as he said, the prime minister is making harmful concessions to Northern Macedonia in its negotiations for entry into the European Union.
However, Prime Minister Petkov put others in charge of ousting him from power. He accused Trifonov of being a thug (meaning former Prime Minister Borisov), a man building stables in the sea (pointing to the leader of the Turkish minority party, Ahmet Dogan, who trampled on a beach in Mauritius. with the Russian ambassador in Sofia, who was furious that the Bulgarian government refused to pay Gazprom in rubles, joined forces to overthrow his government.
This was stated by the Prime Minister in front of thousands of his supporters who gathered in the center of Sofia to demonstrate their support in his face at a time when the country is fed by European funds and private investment. The Bulgarian Parliament decided yesterday to lift the veto on the start of accession negotiations between Northern Macedonia and the European Union, paving the way for removing the stalemate in the issue and the start of talks.
Bulgaria, the poorest country in the EU, is going through difficult times at a time when the storm is staying in its neighborhood, causing strong unrest inside. Due to the political and governmental crisis, the 2022 budget has not been prepared yet and as everything shows, if elections take place in the fall, the anarchy will continue and it will not be possible to vote on the 2023 budget.
What is worse is that people are trembling at the idea that the winter, which is heavy in Bulgaria, will arrive and they will thaw without the gas that Gazprom deprived them of.
Apart from that, Bulgaria is a country deeply divided into pro-Western and pro-Russian. This puts Bulgaria after Serbia in the list of countries with the greatest influence of Russia. But it is also a valuable geopolitical ally of Europe and the United States, which see it as a bridgehead for NATO and the EU in the Black Sea, but also as a key energy hub.
