The threshold for entering the parliament can be increased to 6 %. This was stated by Prof. Borislav Velikov, chairman of the 39th National Assembly, to BGNES.
Such a change to the electoral legislation will aim to reduce the possibility of small populist parties entering the parliament, which not only deceive the Bulgarian voters with their unfulfillable promises, but also create a serious obstacle to the formation of a stable government due to their unrealistic demands and conditions they set.
„I think an increase in the 6% barrier could be considered. This would weed out the smaller and unoriented political forces that do not have a clear profile, do not have a clear program and do not know what to meaningfully tackle in the National Assembly. It is not even clear whether they would support the important topics for Bulgaria, such as the adoption of the euro,” said Prof. Velikov.
According to him, such a change of the electoral threshold for entering the parliament would be useful and should be discussed by all parties, and see how it can be implemented.
At the same time, he thinks it would be good to think about a change in the subsidies that political forces receive for a vote received. According to him, this change should be in the direction of giving greater opportunities to small parties, but which are not populist and have meaningful proposals. “It would be good for them to receive a normal subsidy of BGN 10, and for larger parties it should be reduced proportionally. When you receive more than 10%, the subsidy can be twice as small, because your electoral weight is already very large”, said the former Speaker of the Parliament.