Bulgaria
Political Environment
The year 2004 was one of reshuffles within the Bulgarian political parties. At the beginning of the year tension within the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) started to mount, culminating in former UDF leader and prime minister in the period 1997-2001 Ivan Kostov establishing a split-up parliamentary group of his ownas a first step towards the formation of his new political party. It became a reality in June 2004 under the name Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB). Another break-away formation appeared in March 2004 when young activists from the National Movement Simeon ²² (NMSS) set up a separate parliamentary group of the New Time. The parliamentary group was officially institutionalised as a political party in July.
The beginning of the political 2005 promised turbulent pre-election months. In February a parliamentary crisis followed a major privatisation scandal involving Minister of Economy Lidia Shuleva.The government survived a non-confidence vote in parliament by a slim margin thanks to the New Time party's last minute support. Yet, Prime Minister Simeon Sax-Coburg Gotha had to make cabinet changes, giving the New Timers ministerial position in return for their parliamentary backing.
The general elections that took place on June 25th, 2005 produced the most complicated results in the country's post-communist history.Seven political forces overcame the 4 % election threshold It was no surprise that the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)-led Coalition for Bulgaria won 33.98% of the votes. The NMSS came second with 21.83%, while the mainly ethnic Turkish Movemnt for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), which had been part of the ruling coalition along with the NMS²² for the past four years , was third with14.07%.
The biggest surprise of the elections was the strong showing of the newly established nationalist coaltion Ataka, which received 8.93% of the votes. The reshuffles and partisanship within the UDF affected the Union's election performance, with its winning only 8.44% of the parliamentary seats. This marked UDF's lowest result since its formation. Ivan Kostov's DSB also demonstrated a serious electoral support by gaining 7.07% of the vote.The last formation to enter parliament was the Bulgarian Popular Union coalition, which received 5.70% of the vote.
The fragmentation in the political spectrum led not only to the inability of any of the parliamentary represented forces to form a majority government, but also resulted in the inability of the newly elected parliament to form any government at all. Thus, the new Bulgarian government was constituted in August 2005, two months after the elections themselves, and was a product of heavy political bargaining among the BSP-led Coalition for Bulgaria, NMSS, and the MRF.Headed by BSP leader Sergei Stanishev, the new government includes8 ministers from the BSP, 5 from the NMSS, and 3 from the MRF. At present the governing coalition holds 169 seats in parliament.On October 29th, 2005 elections for the vacant Sofia mayor's office were held after incumbent mayor Stefan Sofianski was elected MP. They marked the lowest turnout for the last 15 years. None of the candidates received the necessarynumber of votes in the first round Independent candidate Boiko Borisov led, having received 38.11% of the vote, with BSP candidate Tatyana Doncheva garnering 23,19% to end up second. DSB-alligned former Bulgarian National Bank governor Svetoslav Gavriiski was third with 16.76%, followed by NMSS candidate Milen Velchev with13.17%. The UDF registered the lowest ever result in its former stronghold Sofia, with the Union's candidate Minko Gerdzhikov receiving barely 4.95% of the votes. In the second round, held on November 5th, Boiko Borisov outpaced his rival Tatyana Doncheva .with 68.5% , compared to 31.5% for Doncheva.