Bulgaria: Political Developments and Data in 2019

European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook, vol. 59, pp. 56–61

Abstract

Election reportEuropean Parliament (EP) elections were held, just as in most of the EU, in May 2019.These were the only national elections in the country during the year and elected 17 members of the EP.A total of 27 parties ran in the election, and five made it to the EP.The campaign was, as usual for the EP elections, lacklustre, with the main issues reflecting the national political competition: the corrupt practices of the Cabinet, nationalism, protection of minorities and foreign policy orientation.The EP elections are mainly used to estimate the support for the political actors at the time, as there is a general pro-EU consensus among the political parties in the country, with some very small exceptions.On the centre-right, GERB and the Democratic Bulgaria-Union (Da, Bulgaria & DSB)/Demokratichna Bulgaria-Obedinenie (Da, Bulgaria & DSB) (DB-U) coalition, both members of the European People's Party (EPP) ran separately, even though EPP leader Joseph Dole called for an electoral alliance.Several principled disagreements stood in the way, with the most important being foreign policy.While Borissov maintains a two-pronged foreign policy, balancing between the EU and Russia, democratic Bulgaria maintains a firm pro-European line.Also on the right, and in a sign of intra-coalition trouble, one of the Cabinet partners, United Patriots/Obedineni Patrioti (OP), an alliance of two nationalistic parties, failed to run candidates together: its constituent party Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization/VMRO-Bulgarsko Natsionalno Dvizhenie (VMRO) ran on its own.They ran on an openly nationalist and traditionalist position 'against pseudo-liberals, multicultural ideologies, against the invasion, against Islamism, for the protection of the Bulgarian interest' (BTV News 2019).

Authors 1

1. Maria Spirova corresponding Aachen Institute of Political Science

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands