Vote recount changes political landscape in Bulgaria

The make-up of Bulgaria’s parliament has changed, after the country’s Constitutional Country ordered a partial recount of votes from October’s election.

As a result of the recount, the nationalist and pro-Russian Velichie party — whose name means “greatness” in Bulgarian — reached the necessary vote threshold to enter parliament.

The party had previously just missed out on the 4% of votes they needed.

Following the court’s ruling, the Bulgarian parliament welcomed 10 Velichie politicians on Friday as new members of parliament.

Their arrival leaves the coalition government with a razor-thin majority. It previously had 126 out of 240 seats in parliament, but this number has now shrunk to 121.

The Balkan country has had seven elections in the past four years and is still trying to overcome the consequences of this long political crisis.

Could Bulgaria’s adoption of the euro be in jeopardy?

Observers have warned that another early vote could damage the country’s aim of joining the euro area at the beginning of next year.

Former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, whose centre-right GERB party leads the current coalition government, claimed his opponents had created “chaos” by questioning the election results.

He criticised President Rumen Radev, who has been at odds with the government over foreign policy issues, for allegedly trying to bring it down.

“The conspiracy has succeeded, and we ended up being robbed. President Radev can’t keep pretending that he’s not involved because his judges did all this,” Borissov told reporters.