On April 4 Bulgarians Voted for Change, Three New Parties Made It to Parliament

Bulgarians voted on Sunday (4 April) sending in Parliament three new political forces largely representing the anti-corruption protests during the summer. Boyko Borissov's GERB party remained the largest force, but appears unable to form a government.

According to preliminary official results, Borissov's coalition (GERB-SDS) emerges first, but with only 23.78% of the votes. In the 2017 elections Borissov's GERB obtained 33% of the vote.

Second comes "There is such a people", a new force led by TV showman Slavi Trifonov, with 19.03%. The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) comes third with the disastrous result of 14.85%. In public statements in the last days BSP said they would win the election.

Fourth is Democratic Bulgaria with 11,05%, a centre-right opposition force hostile to Borissov, fifth is the mainly ethnic Turkish Movement of Rights and Freedoms (DPS) with 8.92% and sixth - "Stand up, Mafia out", a new centre-left  force with 5.2%.

According to the preliminary results the nationalist party VMRO of Krassimir Karakachanov, which was a junior party to GERB, hasn't been able to pass the 4% barrier to enter Parliament.

According to analysts, the elections turned to be a slap in the face of the forces which were represented in the outgoing parliament, especially for Borissov's GERB and its arch-enemy BSP, who had hoped for much better results. Also, the elections kicked out of Parliament the nationalists from VMRO and another nationalist formation - that of businessman Vesselin Mareshki in coalition with Valeri Simeonov's NFSB party.

Conversely, the big surprise is the success of Slavi Trifonov's party "There is such a people" which is likely to obtain a mandate to form a government. According to constitution, the force...