Bulgaria to hold third parliamentary vote on November 14

Bulgaria in November will hold a third round of parliamentary elections within a year, the country’s president, Rumen Radev, said on Saturday, according to the Guardian.

The election in April ended former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s time in office, and Bulgarians then voted again in July; but both votes failed to provide the country with a new government. Bulgaria will now hold parliamentary elections on November 14, the same day as the presidential election, as Radev, who was first elected in 2016, is running for his second term.

“The elections will be on November 14,” Radev was quoted as saying in the northern town of Pleven.

Bulgarian elections are closely watched in Brussels for their potential impact over the enlargement debate. Since November last year, Bulgaria has been blocking the start of EU membership talks for its neighbor North Macedonia due to disputes over history and language.

A summit of EU leaders on the Western Balkans will take place on October 6 in Brdo, Slovenia, but diplomats are skeptical of any change in Bulgaria’s line ahead of the elections.

The appetite for enlargement in many member states like France and the Netherlands has been decreasing. A draft of the declaration for the Western Balkans summit circulated this week, and seen by POLITICO, doesn’t even include the word “enlargement.”

And at a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday, some member states complained that in the declaration the EU commitment towards the region must come out more clearly, according to an EU diplomat who was at the meeting.