Bulgaria: Elections now would produce five-group National Assembly – poll

Were Bulgaria to hold parliamentary elections now, there would be a National Assembly with five groups, according to a poll by the Market Links agency, the results of which were released on October 25.

According to the poll, Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF has 23.6 per cent among those who would vote in this – hypothetical – election, We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria 17.5 per cent, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms 12.4 per cent, pro-Kremlin party Vuzrazhdane 11.1 per cent and Kornelia Ninova’s Bulgarian Socialist Party 7.9 per cent.

Dobromir Zhivkov of Market Links told bTV that the difference between GERB-UDF and WCC-DB was increasing slightly, but remained within stable limits.

The politician with the highest approval rating is President Roumen Radev, with 43 per cent approval and 35 per cent disapproval.

Borissov has an approval rating of 25 per cent and a disapproval rating of 60 per cent, and Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov has 24 per cent approval and 52 per cent disapproval.

Denkov’s government has 53 per cent disapproval, 21 per cent approval and 26 per cent neutral.

Zhivkov said that the result for Radev was not so much because approval of him had increased, but that disapproval had reduced.

There was a gradual increase in trust in the government, which had set out with a very low approval rating, and it was normal to see improvement to some extent, Zhivkov said.

The Market Links poll was financed and carried out jointly by bTV and Market Links. It was conducted among 1032 people over 18 years of age in Bulgaria from September 26 to October 8 2023, using the methods of direct personal interview and online polling.