Bulgaria's Ex-President Formation Dents Socialists' Support – Poll

The margin between Bulgaria's main political parties BSP and GERB would be very slim if European elections were to be held now.

The data comes from a recent poll of Gallup International agency conducted between January 31 and February 10 via direct interviews in the homes of 1 012 Bulgarians of voting age across the country.

Archenemies – the left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the opposition formerly-ruling centrist Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB – are running neck to neck with 19% and 18%, respectively.

This is attributed mainly to the revival of the frozen ABV (Alternative for Bulgarian Renaissance) movement of former two-term President and former BSP leader, Georgi Parvanov, which is putting a dent in BSP's support and which has a real chance to win MEP seats with 6%.

The liberal predominantly ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, keeps its stable base and would get between 6% and 7%.

The populist party Bulgaria without Censorship of former controversial TV host and director, Nikolay Barekov in coalition with the nationalist VMRO continues to gain momentum and receives 6.1% support, ahead of another recent coalition – the right-wing Reformist Bloc with 4.6%.

Voter turnout is expected to not be very high – an estimated 2.5 to 3 million Bulgarians will go to the polls.

Results are similar regarding general elections in Bulgaria. If they are to be held now, BSP and GERB get 19.2% and 18.4%, respectively, DPS gets 6.3%.

There is a more significant discrepancy with ABV with only 3.3% and with Bulgaria without Censorship which gets 4.7% support, while the Reformist Bloc is just behind them with 4.4%.