Bulgaria’s ruling coalition is left with a slim majority after vote recount

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — New lawmakers were sworn in on Friday to Bulgaria’s parliament after a court ordered a partial recount of the October early general election, which changed the makeup of the legislature.

The ruling by the Constitutional Court added new dynamics to the fragmented political landscape as another party — the nationalist and pro-Russian Velichie (“greatness” in Bulgarian) will now share parliamentary seats with eight other groups.

The recount found that Velichie, which had initially missed the 4% barrier by just a few votes, had reached that threshold and will now have 10 seats in parliament, which led to a shift in the other parties’ share of seats.

After seven elections in the past four years, the Balkan country is still trying to overcome the consequences of the political crisis. And the latest court ruling will weaken the current coalition government as its support in the 240-seat chamber shrinks from 126 to 121 MPs.

Observers have warned that another early vote carries risks for the country’s intentions to join the euro area at the beginning of next year.

Former prime minister Boyko Borissov, whose center-right GERB party leads the current coalition government, accused his opponents of creating “chaos” through questioning election results.

He criticized 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.