There is no such a government. Bulgarian parliament breaks up again.

“On the Barricades” s05e09

In the last year and a half, Bulgarians have seen three rounds of general elections which have attempted to cobble together, from a wide and fragmented cast of confused political projects, a functioning ruling coalition to govern. Now Bulgaria faces a potential fourth general election, after the so-called pro-change government led by Kiril Petkov broke up on June 22. Everything had to change so that precisely nothing would change, it seems – but what is reproducing the crisis in the political system, or rather the party system?

This week, hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat speak with Stefan Georgiev, a Bulgarian leftist sociologist and political analyst. In this first episode Stefan provides an overview of the events that led to this most recent impasse.

The Bulgarian political elite represent, less and less, the society they govern as much as corporate and financial interests of the mafia and multinationals who sponsor their projects in Parliament. As a frankenstein-like body of incoherent, barely-political voices, these offer no basis for even a minimum stability in parliament, let alone genuine representative democracy.

Boyan and Maria discuss with Stefan: could this end up in any other place than authoritarian disaster? Will there be major constitutional reform making Bulgaria a presidential republic, as some analysts prescribe? Or will Borisov, the formerly-entrenched mafia-tied prime minister, come back on a white horse?