Ex-Premier's Party Wins Bulgaria Vote to Boost Pro-EU Stance
- Gerb got 33%, Socialists 27% with almost all ballots counted
- Party will probably form coalition with nationalist group
The head of the centre-right GERB party and former prime minister Boyko Borisov (C) speaks during a pre-election rally in the city of Plovdiv on March 24, 2017, ahead of the parliamentary election, the thirds in four years in the country. Bulgaria's upcoming parliamentary election, held on March 26, 2017, raises the prospect of the EU's poorest country tilting more towards Russia if the Socialists emerge as winners and can form a government. In November, Bulgarians elected Rumen Radev, an air force commander backed by the Socialists (BSP) and seen as sympathetic to Russia, as president. / AFP PHOTO / Dimitar DILKOFF (Photo credit should read DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty Images)
Photographer: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty ImagesFormer Prime Minister Boyko Borissov won early elections in Bulgaria for the third time in five years, setting his Gerb party on course to form a center-right coalition and maintain the Black Sea nation’s pro-European path.
With almost all votes counted, Gerb had 33 percent, while the more pro-Russian Socialists, successor to the Communist Party, had 27 percent, the Central Electoral Commission said Monday in Sofia, the capital. The third-placed United Patriots, a nationalist group that’s the most likely partner for an alliance with Gerb, got 9.1 percent.