Bulgaria looks likely to get yet another unstable, divided government following October 5 snap general election, The Economist has said.

With voter turnout the lowest in the 25 years since the fall of Communism, the election result is likely to bring back to power former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, whose “appeal seemed to lie in his being the least bad of the candidates”, the magazine opined in its 11 October print edition.

Borisov’s GERB party won most votes in the parliamentary elections but remained short of outright majority. Second and third came the Socialist Party (BSP) and mainly ethnic Turk party DPS, which backed the previous government that stepped down in July after about a year in office amidst widespread protests against opaque political decisions. 

According to The Economist, the result of the vote reflects the widespread disillusionment of Bulgarians with their politicians and underscores the need for GERB to try to forge a coalition cabinet with one or two of the other seven parties that made it to the 240-seat parliament. 

“They offer an unappealing choice, ranging from an ultranationalist party, Ataka, and the Patriotic Front, a slightly less nationalist one, to Bulgaria without Censorship, a new populist party,” the article said.

With the right-wing Reformist Bloc, which is GERB’s “preferred partner” having refused to join a cabinet with Borisov as premier, and the second-largest group in parliament - the Socialists – having said they will not join, Borisov is now facing the gruelling task of forming a minority cabinet. 

The new government – the fifth in just a year and a half - will be faced with the vast challenge to tackle issues that range from high power prices and the future of the troubled Corporate Commercial Bank to widespread corruption and slowing economic growth, The Economist said.

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