In April 2015 former French President Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed Prime Minister Boyko Borissov to Paris with the words that he was “the most surviving” Bulgarian politician who never suffers loss and always comes out winner. Back then Sarkozy had no way of knowing these words would be proved true less than a year later.

Threatened by the Patriotic Front that unless the presidential veto on the election code was rejected by parliament, the Front would withdraw its support for his cabinet, Borissov knuckled under and backed down from his public position in support of the veto, with his party, GERB, voting against the presidential veto in parliament. Demonstrating Borrisov’s capacity for survival but also that this survival goes with a high price tag. That the price is high is beyond any doubt.

President Rosen Plevneliev rebuked parliament that by rejecting his veto for the sake of party interests, the MPs had opened the floodgates for confrontation to the detriment of the constitution and basic democratic citizens’ rights, declaring he would now address the constitutional court. One presidential legal advisor even went as far as to write on Facebook that the thought process of the parliamentary majority had all the marks of “serious mental disorders” and was reduced to rudimentary biological needs – “accretionand excretion”. Confrontation on such a scale between the presidency, executive and legislative power all at the same time has never been seen in Bulgaria before.

The rejection of the veto generated a wave of indignation among NGOs as well. Set up in 2013 on the crest of public indignation at the power wielded by the oligarchy and the Oresharski cabinet, now, the Protest Network organization is calling on the current administration to tender in their resignation, because they were “useless” and had “waged war on the constitution.”

GERB’s junior coalition partner – the ruling wing of the Reformist Bloc – are also paying a high price. Under pressure from GERB and for the sake of keeping the coalition together, they also voted against the veto of the president. This deepened the gulf that already exists between them and the opposition wing of the reformists, but more than that – it discredited them in the eyes of Bulgarian expats, most of whom are traditionally Reformist voters.

Yet, though this turn of events is a liability, there are certain assets as well. The vote “for” or “against” the presidential veto was seen as a viability test for the dynamic majorities in parliament after the left ABV formation withdrew from the administration. The result shows that even minus the ABV votes, the ruling coalition is capable of making decisions by resorting to flowing majorities, formed depending on the objective at hand. This formula has so far withstood all kinds of tests, and as with the rejection of the presidential veto, has even proved effective enough to turn the resident opposition – the extreme nationalists from Ataka party – over to GERB’s position.

GERB is not concealing the fact that the only aim of the rejection of the veto was to save the government. Discussion of the election code provisions is to be reopened; in the course of this discussion GERB is hoping to demonstrate that for the sake of the government’s survival, it is prepared to pay a high price, though not at all costs. Certainly not at the cost of restricting the voting rights of Bulgarians abroad. With a view to this, in their wish to “improve” the election code, GERB, the Reformist Bloc and the Patriotic Front are expected to allow the opening of up to 35 polling stations for Bulgarians living in any country abroad, on condition that there are more than 60 and not 100 as previously voting applications submitted. The Bulgarian head of state will now turn the case over to the constitutional court. There are five months to go until the presidential elections and no end in sight of the saga of amendments to the election code.

English version: Milena Daynova