Will it be possible to see a stable government emerging in Bulgaria? Analysts Kolyo Paramov, Dimitar Gronev, Anton Todorov and Dimitar Dimitrov with comments for Radio Bulgaria: 

"The situation is very hard and uncompromising with a view to forming a stable cabinet”, Kolyo Paramov comments. “Besides the possibility of eight parties entering parliament is short of guarantees that we have any chance of a strong political cabinet armed with the patience, competence and will to carry out structural reforms that we have failed to push through for 25 years now. With this situation at hand we have to do everything possible to reach some sort of a deal. Otherwise, having a generally difficult financial situation in Bulgaria, we risk letting it escalate and undermine the financial system. In this sense, it is a must to look for a broad and interim compromise. I do not mean a GERB-BSP government but rather a commitment of all parliamentary groups for the sake of the country. I am sure that in the coming days we shall be discussing a government of national salvation.”

"I can see various options,” Dimitar Gronev contends. “One of the options is to compose a grand coalition. Whether this will happen is difficult to predict. It is up to politicians. I believe however that BSP should congratulate GERB for the victory and propose the start of discussions on the national priorities that should be specified. The resulting coalition, no matter how we term it, this formula of government, should be based on national priorities, and also, it should allow the participation of all parliamentary groups in one way or another.” There is a formula on how the non-additive property (or a non-mechanical assembly) is achieved.  All parties sit down together, define a certain political frame and neither loses nor profits because a new quality emerges.”

"I will be explicit: a stable government is impossible to compose”, analyst Anton Todorov said. “And any government at all will be a challenge to form. In fact, at 5 pm yesterday it became clear that new snap elections are ahead. I am aware that people might take my view as a curse, as something outright unthinkable until a few days ago. But this is the reality and we should not be scared of it. The job of political analysts like me is to explain that there are EU countries which have neither fallen apart nor lost much from holding two elections in a single year. One example is Italy. On the other hand, given that the public sector in Bulgaria is charged with colossal expectations, people tend to seen frequent changes in the administration as a lack of stability. This is formally true but in the meantime, if we refer to Bulgarian folklore we can quote the story in which the blue waters are washed away first, then the brown waters and finally the yellow waters. And finally, after a chain of changes, it could be that the new people will emerge able to carry out the hardest jobs of the transition of the past 25 years. To recap: we Bulgarians should brace for a cold and long winter. It is not a nice forecast, but it has resulted from our decisions. After all, all the people in parliament were elected by means of the ballots cast. There is also a large group of voters who did not go to the polls. This means that most Bulgarians did not bother to carry out their right to vote. And, I believe, this is the core issue. Why did they refuse to vote? This is the topic for analysts to focus on.”

Radio Bulgaria asked political analyst Dimitar Dimitrov whether the elections had been fair.

"Definitely much fairer than previous elections. For sure they are fairer than the 2009 elections that were contested before the Constitutional Court and it even altered results. This is not a usual development in any established democracy because there was a breach in the law. I mean in 2009. Indeed, there was great interest in various vote-selling schemes and controlled voting but I still see in this a healthy sign.” 

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What are the expectations of voters?

44-year-old Tania Belovodska is a university graduate and an optimist by nature. What were her hopes as she went to the polls? 

"I hope for greater security so that more young people choose to remain in Bulgaria; so that unemployment goes down as well as crime. I hope for a calmer life and of higher living standards.”

"I expect a change so to speak, but…”, 29-year-old young father Momchil says. “My hopes are weak. Everyone wants things to improve, but…. I hope that there are better opportunities for me, for both living and working.”

"I have zero expectations”, young mother Eli Todorova says. She is pessimistic about the prospects of young people in Bulgaria.  “I vote to make sure that my vote is not distributed somewhere against my will. I want many things but I have no hopes for any improvement. I am 30, and I haven’t seen anything changing for the last 12 years. With every elections things for the young become worse.”

"This time I have gone to vote for the first time in 40 years because I left the country and I have just returned to Bulgaria”, a 60-year-old Bulgarian man who has been living in Russia admits. “Expectations have to do with more justice for the people, and for better life. That’s all I hope for, although my permanent residence is abroad.”