After five hung verdicts in two years, Bulgaria finally gets a stable government

Bulgaria would soon be governed by a “stable government” after the two biggest rival political parties agreed to rule through a coalition after hectic parlays, former EU commissioner for innovation Mariya Gabriel, who led the negotiations, said on Monday.

"We all made a lot of concessions," Gabriel told a news conference in the country's capital Sofia, reports AFP news agency.

Gabriel's conservative GERB and the anti-graft We Continue the Change (PP) will propose a government of experts for a period of 18 months.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

GERB's nominee for prime minister Maryia Gabriel, and Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria's leader Nikolay Denkov have agreed to rotate as head of the government every nine months, Gabriel said.

Initially, Gabriel, the 44-year-old ex-commissioner who resigned from her post in Brussels last week, will take on the mantle of the deputy prime minister, while 60-year-old researcher Nikolay Denkov of the PP will be the prime minister. Two years later, both will swap their positions.

This is the first time that Bulgaria will be ruled under a rotating premiership. A coalition government was the only option for both parties after Gabriel failed to secure backing from two out of three smaller parties in the fragmented legislature for a cabinet.

"We sought a solution to avoid the real danger of new elections," Denkov said Monday.

As per the agreement, the coalition will have a pro-European Union agenda, with obtaining membership in the Schengen passport-free area and the euro monetary union as top priorities along with fighting Russian influence in Bulgaria's security sector.

For the past two years, the people of Bulgaria were unable to give a decisive mandate due to which five parliamentary elections were held. In the latest one, GERB secured a narrow victory in the April 2 vote with 26.5 per cent of the vote or 69 seats.

The pro-European PP got the second biggest mandate with 24.5 per cent, and got 64 seats. The combined 133 seats will give the two parties a slim majority in the 240-seat parliament.

The PP has been reluctant to participate in the government as it did not want to form a coalition with the GERB or ministers appointed by Boyko Borissov.

For past two years, caretaker govts have been governing

Ever since a massive protest overthrew the decade-long corrupted regime of former prime minister Boyko Borisov—the head of GERB— in 2020, Bulgaria has been getting caretaker governments as none of the political parties managed to gain a significant majority

After Borisov, the pro-Western government of prime minister Kiril Petkov, who led a fragile coalition, was booted out after a no-confidence vote in parliament after only six months in power.

In February, President Rumen Radev dissolved the parliament and announced the April 2 vote.

(With inputs from agencies)