Bulgarian Socialists Won’t Make Coalition with Ruling Party

The Bulgarian Socialist Party will not enter into coalition with now-ruling GERB party, no matter what the outcome of summer 2013 general elections, stated socialist MP Boyko Velikov.

At a press conference Tuesday, Velikov said that it is a standing position of the Socialist Party that a coalition with center-right GERB, which they see as pushing “anti-democratic and anti-social” policies, is out of the question.

Although the Socialists and GERB are currently the two major rival parties in Bulgarian politics, many analysts have speculated that given the results of upcoming parliamentary elections, they might be forced into opting for a joint coalition in order to form Bulgaria’s next government.

Polls currently show that neither party stands to getting a parliamentary majority or a number of MPs sufficient for a minority cabinet.

The current cabinet of PM and GERB leader Boyko Borisov is supported by a large minority of 117 GERB MPs (out of 240), plus some independent MPs.

But GERB is more likely than not to get less MPs in Bulgaria’s next Parliament, say pollsters.

The two other parties almost certain to enter Parliament in 2013 are the liberal Movement of Rights and Freedoms and newly-founded Bulgaria for Citizens, led by former EU Commissioner Meglena Kuneva.

The Movement, also currently in opposition, participated in Bulgaria’s last cabinet chaired by ex-PM Sergey Stanishev, leader of the Bulgarian Socialists Party, as well as of the Party of European Socialists.

But in recent years the Movement, supported by Bulgaria’s sizeable Turkish minority, has shown a cooled off stance towards the Socialists.