In Bulgaria, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov’s government fell on Wednesday after a vote of no confidence in parliament. In Sofia, a majority of 124 MPs voted in favor of the motion by the bourgeois opposition party GERB. Petkov was only supported by 115 deputies. His liberal-socialist coalition, which consists of four parties, had already lost an absolute majority two weeks ago.
Petkov’s government had only been in office since December. He had promised to fight widespread corruption in the poorest EU country and to reform the judiciary. The GERB had justified its application with a “failure of the government in financial and economic policy”. The inflation rate in Bulgaria was 15.6 percent in May.
Petkov’s party can now put a new government to the vote in parliament. With 67 MPs, it has the largest group in the 240-seat parliament – but is far from having its own majority. If she does not get a majority, two more attempts can be made by other parties before the president appoints an interim cabinet and calls new elections. In view of the fact that the parties are at odds with each other, experts are not ruling out new elections in the fall.