In the recent days rightwing parties in Bulgaria have seen dramatic developments in the wake of their fiasco at the snap parliamentary elections. On Monday the Chairman of Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria and leader of the New Republic coalition Radan Kanev resigned. On Tuesday there was an announcement that the Chairman of the Union of Democratic Forces Bojidar Loukarski and the entire UDF leadership would resign over the election failure of the party as part of the Reformist Bloc - People's Voice coalition. Thursday saw the resignation of the Reformist Bloc Political Council. In all three cases the withdrawal from political leadership was clearly motivated with that following poor election results more than 300,000 rightwing voters in Bulgaria have no representation in parliament. There is no parliamentary representation for them at a moment when Bulgaria should form and uphold its position regarding the future of the European Union, and will take over the EU presidency in 2018. Moreover, rightwing voters are not represented in parliament at a time when leftwing parties have doubled their presence in the National Assembly.

Following the resignation of the Reformist Bloc Political Council the coalition said that they would begin fresh talks for the reunification of rightwing parties in various formats of concerted action. Whether there will be functional interaction, coordinated effort or a common platform will be specified from now on. Unification talks should open immediately but the circle of those involved in them is unclear. According to UDF leader Bojidar Loukarski who has stepped down, all parties in the Reformist Bloc coalition are to be blamed for the sad election outcome. It seems though that one of them, Bulgaria of the Citizens Movement, does not agree. Its members argue that their leader Meglena Kuneva will not resign because not the movement but the Reformist Bloc took part in the elections. Regarding responsibility for the fiasco we have not heard any statements from either the Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union or from the Freedom and Dignity People's Party. The latter actually left the Reformist Bloc in March aiming to join DOST, a new predominantly ethnic Turkish party which has decided to sue Bulgaria in Strasburg for efforts to prevent the vote of Bulgarian citizens in Turkey.

It is however much more important to find out whether unification talks will be joined by Yes, Bulgaria political group led by Hristo Ivanov. Though it has self-defined as neither rightwing nor leftwing, Yes, Bulgaria is a desired partner for the Reformists and it is possible that the election fiasco will work to eliminate the obstacles standing in the way of unification. Hirsto Ivanov himself thinks that the main reason for the collapse of the Reformist Bloc is its wrong coalition model and has asked what would have happened had his formation not come under friendly fire from its rightwing rivals. In the meantime Ivanov also stated that Yes, Bulgaria “has not burnt even a single bridge and will use these bridges very actively.”

English Daniela Konstantinova