Early parliamentary elections will be held in Bulgaria on 9 June 2024, to elect members of the National Assembly. The election coincides with the European Parliament election on the same day. This Bulgarian parliamentary election was initially scheduled to be held before 12 June 2027; however, as formation and approval of the rotation government scheduled to replace the Denkov Government failed on 20 March 2024, the Bulgarian President, Rumen Radev, announced after having concluded a further second and third failed attempt to form a government among the elected parties, that he would now appoint a new caretaker prime minister and caretaker government tasked to organize a new snap election. The election campaign has been scheduled to run from 10 May until 7 June. The current 49th Parliament will stay in session at least until the election campaign begins. The snap elections will be the country’s sixth since 2021.

Following several snap elections, the Bulgarian National Assembly had failed to put together a long-lasting government since ‘anti-corruption’ parties made a breakthrough in the April 2021 election. The 2023 election saw little change from 2022, with Boyko Borisov’s centre-right GERB—SDS narrowly winning over the centrist PP–DB alliance. The far right Revival (VAZ) and the populist There is Such a People (ITN) made gains, with the latter re-entering the Assembly after it failed to reach the electoral threshold in the 2022 election.

The Central Election Commission subsequently adopted a schedule for the elections, regulating that the election campaign will begin at 12 am on 10 May and will end at midnight on 7 June.

The current 49th Parliament will stay in session at least until the election campaign begins, where a decision of election recess is expected to be adopted by Parliament. According to MP Ivaylo Vulchev, some of his colleagues even considered — to his dismay — that Parliament should not go on election recess, but continue meeting during the election campaign while however only allowing discussed topics within the realm of “such that it does not look as if someone has started his election campaign from the rostrum.”

Sources and further reading:

For Bulgarian Voters, It’s Groundhog Day, Again, NYT 08.05.24

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/world/europe/bulgaria-general-elections-again.html

North Macedonia’s EU aspirations face bumpy ride after elections, Politico Europe 06.05.24

https://www.politico.eu/article/north-macedonia-enters-electoral-race-that-will-define-its-eu-path/