Bulgaria calls 7th election in less than four years

SOFIA

Bulgaria will hold a new snap vote on Oct. 27, its seventh general election in three and a half years, its head of state said on Monday after parties failed to form a government.

The Balkan country has been plagued by political turmoil since massive anti-corruption protests toppled the cabinet of conservative three-time Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in 2021.

The last election in June had the lowest voter turnout since the collapse of communism in the Balkan country at just 34 percent, and analysts expect an even lower turnout in October, as well as a rise in support for pro-Russian parties.

"Tomorrow I will issue a decree calling for early elections on Oct. 27," President Rumen Radev said after approving a new caretaker cabinet proposed by the outgoing interim premier Dimitar Glavchev who will be tasked with organizing the vote.

Six consecutive votes in the EU's poorest country since 2021 have merely produced two short-lived administrations, with interim governments in charge during much of the time.

Borisov's conservative GERB party won the vote in June but lacked the majority to push its cabinet through parliament.

Two more attempts by parties to piece together a governing majority also failed, forcing the country to head to its seventh general election.

The political hiatus is unprecedented in Bulgaria's post-communist history since 1989.

The prolonged political instability has also threatened to jeopardize the country's bid to join the eurozone in 2025 and the allocation of billions of euros from the EU.