With an anti-system campaign, Bulgarian singer and comedian Stanislav “Slavi” Trifonov, 54, won a strong vote for his populist This People Exists (ITN) party in Sunday’s parliamentary elections (11) and won a draw. with Gerb’s center-right coalition, by Boiko Borissov, 61.
Borisov had his worst electoral result since 2010, when he became Prime Minister of Bulgaria, the poorest country in the European Union. In recent years, allegations of corruption have pushed thousands into the streets against the government, and the prime minister did not get enough votes or support to stay in power in early April. An interim administrator has been appointed by Bulgarian President Roumen Radev, rival of Borissov.
This Monday morning (12), the counting of 95.22% of the ballot boxes gave the ITN 23.66% of the votes, against 23.91% of the Gerb. The two subtitles were the most voted. Slavi, who founded his party last year, has achieved a five percentage point lead since April, when he had already surprised. The ruling coalition has lost three points in those three months.
Analysts have predicted that with the overseas vote count, ITN’s numbers could overtake Gerb’s.
As no acronym won a majority, Slavi was expected to consider a deal with the anti-government front formed by Democratic Bulgaria and Stand Up! Out, Mafia !, which arose out of protests against Borisov’s resignation last year. The two parties also increased in number of votes and obtained respectively 12.6% and 5%.
Together the three must get 110 seats, less than the 120 needed to get a majority, and to build a coalition you would have to attract other parties. So far, Trifonov has not looked for any other association. “In recent years, coalition has become a bad word,” he said on Monday (12).
A controversial figure, Slavi has had success on television alongside big-nosed puppet Mr. Cu-cu, and most recently on YouTube music videos in which he paraded in imported cars alongside sighted women. His moralizing speech also arouses criticism from left-wing activists and political scientists.
In his first post-election speech, the artist said that years ago he announced his intention to pursue a political project, but heard and read “all kinds of fantasies and lies” to this subject. “It surprises me that people still do not understand what we do: what morals, the law and professionalism dictate to us,” Trifonov told Bulgarian media.
The artist’s first participation in the country’s political life was the launch of a campaign to reform the political system six years ago. In 2016, a referendum was held and the majority of the population voted in favor of the three changes included in the consultation: limitation of public funding to parties, introduction of compulsory voting and the two-round system to choose the prime minister in elections. legislative.
Despite this, the number of voters did not reach the minimum necessary for the popular consultation to have legal weight, and the Bulgarian Assembly did not make the changes.
The episode catapulted the popularity of Trifonov, who led actions to push through the majority opinion in the referendum. “We fought in the courts, we protested, we did everything that was legal to get the referendum approved, but the political class threw everything in the trash. I couldn’t swallow that, ”he told Bulgarian media on Monday.
On Monday, the comedian presented a government plan and a team, formed, according to him, of experts in each of the fields: “Honest and honest people, with morals, who speak languages, are experienced and are graduates of prestigious universities “.
Among Trifonov’s main priorities are the construction of day care centers and a children’s hospital, the privatization of highways, the purchase of a million tablets or laptops for all students and teachers in the public network, and a reform of the public procurement system to increase its transparency.
He also pledged to send “a man and a woman to NASA, to be the first Bulgarian astronauts”, and declared that the dignity of Parliament, “which in recent years has been crushed, marginalized and humiliated”, must be found.
If neither party manages to form a government, the Bulgarian presidency will have to call new elections.