European Commissioner Maria Gabriel could become Prime Minister of Bulgaria after five elections in two years
On Wednesday, former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, whose party won elections last April (its fifth in two years) without the votes needed to govern alone, pointed to Maria Gabriel as a possible prime minister in a coalition government.
Gabrielle has had a career of more than ten years in the European Union: she has been a Member of the European Parliament, served on various committees, been European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society and, currently, for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. It has been shown to break the political deadlock that Bulgaria has been in for some time, but it is unclear if it will gain the support of other parties in parliament.
Much depends on Let’s Keep the Change (PP), a centrist party led by another former prime minister, Kirill Petkov, who had hitherto been an outspoken opponent of Borisov, refused any cooperation. Petkov ruled for just over six months in 2022: in the last elections, last April, the People’s Party was the second with the most votes (with 24.6 percent of the vote), after Borisov’s party, Citizens for European Development in Bulgaria (GERB), which received 26.5 percent of the vote.
Those in April were the fifth elections in two years: in all these cases no winner of the majority voted and the various political forces could not agree to form a government.
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