TV showman Slavi Trifonov, whose party narrowly won Sunday’s snap general elections in Bulgaria, surprisingly proposed on Monday a minority government led by a former minister in Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha’s cabinet. The fragmented new parliament appears to have little choice but to accept it, or risk new elections in the poorest EU country, Euractiv reports.

With the vote from the Bulgarian diaspora, Trifonov’s anti-elite force “There is Such a People” (ITN) leapfrogged former prime minister Boyko Borissov’ centre-right GERB party, final counting revealed on Monday.

Before the diaspora votes came in, Borissov had a small lead of 6,000 votes over Trifonov.

According to the latest results, six parties will enter Parliament. Trifonov’s ITN captured 23.9% of the vote, followed by GERB at 23.7%, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) at 13.5%, Democratic Bulgaria at 12.6%, Movement of Rights and Freedoms at 10.7%, and ‘Stand up! Mafia out!’ at 5%.

The three protest parties – ITN, Democratic Bulgaria of Hristo Ivanov, and “Stand up! Mafia out!” of Maya Manolova – were widely expected to join forces in a future government.

However, Trifonov surprisingly announced he would not enter any coalitions and instead tabled the cabinet list of a minority government representing exclusively his force.

According to the Constitution, after the new parliament is inaugurated, President Rumen Radev will give the party that won the most votes – in this case, ITN – the first chance to form a government.

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