Resignation signals woes for Bulgaria’s Reformist Bloc
The August 4 resignation of Radan Kanev as spokesperson for the Reformist Bloc is an indication of serious differences within the group over its strategy for coalitions with other political groupings, notably Boiko Borissov’s GERB.
The Reformist Bloc was formed in 2013 after the May elections in which none of its founding parties won seats.
The process towards unity, or at least a broad front of co-operation among a diverse range of centre-right minority parties, was fraught with complications and internal differences. Whatever the difficulties, however, the Reformist Bloc won a seat in the European Parliament when Bulgaria elected its 17 MEPs in May 2014.
The Reformist Bloc is seen by the more reliable polls as having a reasonable chance of winning seats when Bulgaria elects a 43rdNational Assembly in ahead-of-term elections on October 5, but Kanev’s August 4 announcement of his resignation was a sign of the fractiousness that has been a long tradition in Bulgaria’s centre-right politics and that has long bedevilled prospects of unity.
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