Politics of Bulgaria - Developments Since 1990

Developments Since 1990

After the fall of the communism in 1990, the former communist party changed to Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and won the first post-communist elections for the new constitution in 1990 with a small majority. Meanwhile, Zhelyu Zhelev, a communist-era dissident from the new democratic party - Union of Democratic Forces, was elected President by the Assembly in 1990, and in 1992 won Bulgaria's first presidential elections and served as president until 1997. The second president was another member of the Union of Demicratic Forces - Petar Stoyanov and served until 2002, when the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party - Georgi Parvanov began to replace him, he won two mandates and served until 2011, when Rosen Plevneliev of the right-oriented GERB was elected for a five-year mandate.

The country's first post-communist Assembly elections, in November 1991, made the winning new pro-reform Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) to make government alone, having won 110 out of the 240 seats in the assembly. Their government collapsed in late 1992, and was succeeded by a technocratic team, put forward by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), which served until 1994, when the president dissolved the government and appointed a provisional one to serve until the pre-term elections, appointed for December in the same year. The BSP won convincingly the pre-term elections in December 1994 with a majority of 125 seats out of the 240 seats in the parliament and despite the mandate is for 4 years, BSP's government collapsed too and remained in office until 1996 due to the economic crysis in Bulgaria. A caretaker cabinet was appointed by the President again and served until the new pre-term parliamentary elections in April 1997. The elections resulted in a landslide victory for the pro-reform United Democratic Forces, giving to the party the majority of 163 seats in the parliament. This year marks the first post-communist government that not collapsed and served its 4-year term until 2001, thus stabilizing the political system in Bulgaria. In 2001, former King Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha returned to power, this time as Prime Minister with his National Movement Simeon II. He won the majority of 120 seats in the parliament and agreed partnership with the party of the Muslim minorities - Movement for Rights and Freedoms in opposition against the two previously governing parties - the Socialist Party and the Democratic Forces. The Bulgarian Socialist Party won the parliamentary elections in 2005 with 82 out of the 240 seats, thus it didn't get the majority of the seats, with Simeon's movement being the second party.

Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007. On the parliamentary elections in 2009 the newly established personalistic party of Boyko Borisov - Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) won the elections, securing 116 seats out of 240, which enabled it to form a cabinet alone. Once the governing party - the National Movement Simeon II have not amassed enough votes to enter the parliament. The next elections are going to be held in 2013.