Bulgaria: GERB wins parliamentary elections
Overview:
The GERB party of former Interior Minister Boyko Borisov followed its recent success in European Parliamentary elections by convincingly winning parliamentary elections. Although GERB fell short of winning a majority, it will be in a strong position to form a new government having won 116 of the 240 seats in parliament. The ruling Socialist Party fared extremely poorly, winning just 40 seats while the ethnic Turkish MRF took 38. Other parties to cross the 4% threshold were the right-wing Ataka (21 seats), the centre-right Blue Coalition (15 seats) and a new right-wing party - Order, Lawfulness and Justice (10 seats). Borisov has indicated that he will seek to form a government with the Blue Coalition. GERB's platform focuses on reducing corruption in Bulgaria which has seen it lose access to much EU funding.