SOFIA: Boyko Borisov, the karate-chopping comeback specialist of Bulgarian politics, looked to have done it again on Sunday as exit polls from a snap election put his pro-EU centre-right party in first place.

Borisov’s European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party won around 32 per cent, the exit polls showed, ahead of the Socialist Party (BSP), seen as closer to Russia, on around 28 per cent.

Whether the burly former firefighter and mayor of Sofia, 57, can form a stable coalition remains to be seen, however.

The European Union’s poorest country, where the average monthly salary is just 500 euros and corruption is rife, has been beset by instability for years. This was the third election in four years.

Borisov, 57, once a bodyguard for Bulgaria’s last communist leader, has long dominated national politics, serving as premier from 2009 to 2013 and again from 2014 to 2017. In between, the BSP was in power for barely a year. Both times Borisov quit early, first in 2013 after mass protests and then last November after his candidate for the presidency was beaten by an air force general backed by the BSP. Forming a coalition this time will be tough.

The performance of the BSP, the successors to the Communist Party, was worse than expected after its new leader Kornelia Ninova energised the party.

But its weak showing will be a relief to observers who thought that a Socialist victory might see Nato member Bulgaria tilt more towards Russia. Moscow, which has long had close cultural and economic ties with Bulgaria, has been accused of seeking to expand its influence in other Balkan countries in recent months.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2017