Bulgaria’s parliament approves new coalition government led by centre-right’s Rosen Zhelyazkov

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) —

Bulgaria’s parliament on Thursday formally approved a coalition government led by the center-right GERB party which has pledged to restore financial stability and maintain a pro-European Union and pro-NATO track.

Lawmakers voted 125-114 to elect Rosen Zhelyazkov, a lawyer and former speaker of parliament, as prime minister. Zhelyazkov, 56, has served as minister in several governments of his GERB party.

The party picked Zhelyazkov to head a new government over its leader, Boyko Borissov, who led three governments between 2009 and 2021, when his third Cabinet resigned following major anti-corruption protests.

The main political actor in the country, the GERB party, finished first in last October’s elections, the seventh in the last three years, but with 69 legislators in the 240-seat National Assembly it lacks a majority to govern alone.

Zhelyazkov said his party had made “the necessary compromises,” addressing the ideological differences with the two junior partners in the uneasy coalition — the pro-Russia Socialist Party (BSP) and the populist group There Is Such a People (ITN).

Although the coalition commands less MPs than the number needed for a majority, it was approved in a separate vote due to the support of a small ethnic Turkish party that gave its votes for the coalition without being part of it.

The new government is dominated by former ministers and party officials of GERB who received 11 ministerial seats, while the BSP and ITN have four ministers each.