GERB

GERB is headed by former Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov, the former mayor of Sofia, former member of the National Movement Simeon II and former personal guard of Todor Zhivkov in the 1990s. The establishment of the party followed the creation of a non-profit organization with the acronym (in Bulgarian) GERB — Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, earlier the same year.

In early January 2007,^[11] and early February 2007,^[12] the party came second in public polls on party support with around 14%, trailing the Bulgarian Socialist Party which had around 25%. Its stated priorities are fighting crime and corruption, preserving family as the cornerstone of society and achieving energy independence.

GERB won the 2009 European Parliament election in Bulgaria with 24.36% of the vote. The party elected five MEPs and joined the European People's Party-European Democrats Group in the European Parliament (in the EPP section). On June 6, 2007, GERB applied formally to join as a member-party the European People's Party^[13] and joined EPP on February 7, 2008.^[14]

GERB won the 2009 parliamentary elections, held a month after the European ballot, winning 39.7% of the popular vote and 116 seats (out of 240). After the elections, a new government was formed, led by Borisov, primarily with GERB members and with 5 independent ministers around Deputy Prime Minister Simeon Djankov. The reformist wing was responsible for some of the most significant legislative victories, including a Constitutional reform to ban tax increases. GERB's candidates for the 2011 presidential election, Rosen Plevneliev and Margarita Popova (presidential nominee and running mate, respectively), won the elections on the second ballot with 52.6% of the popular vote.

On 20 February 2013, the government resigned after nationwide protests demanding it to step down.^[15] GERB lost the 2013 parliamentary elections with 84 seats, receiving 27.5% of the popular vote. However, due to the collapse of the coalition government in 2016 due to a new, even bigger wave of mass protests, GERB backed into power after the snap elections.

In 2020 GERB suffered a split, as a sizable number of members and local party organizations left alongside former second-in-command Tsvetan Tsvetanov to form the Republicans for Bulgaria party.^[16] The whole second half of 2020 saw mass protests against the GERB government, but nevertheless, Borisov did not resign.

In the April 2021 parliamentary election GERB was first with 26.18% of the vote. In the July 2021 snap election, former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's GERB-led coalition was the second with 23.51 percent of the vote.^[17] The next snap election was in November same year, Kiril Petkov's coalition emerged as surprise victors over the conservative GERB party, which dominated Bulgarian politics in the last decade. GERB has been in opposition since December 2021^[18] until June 2022 - the fall of Petkov's government.

National Assembly

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Status
2009	1,678,583	39.72 (#1)	116 / 240		Minority
2013	1,081,605	30.55 (#1)	97 / 240	19	Opposition
2014	1,072,491	32.67 (#1)	84 / 240	13	Coalition
2017	1,147,283	32.65 (#1)	95 / 240	11	Coalition
Apr 2021[b]	837,707	25.80 (#1)	73 / 240	22	Snap election
Jul 2021[b]	642,165	23.21 (#2)	60 / 240	13	Snap election
Nov 2021[b]	596,456	22.44 (#2)	57 / 240	3	Opposition
2022[b]	634,627	24.48 (#1)	64 / 240	7	Snap election
2023[b]	669,924	25.39 (#1)	67 / 240	3	Coalition

Presidential

European Parliament

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
2007	420,001	21.68 (#1)	5 / 18
2009	627,693	24.36 (#1)	5 / 18
2014	680,838	30.40 (#1)	6 / 17	1
2019[b]	607,194	30.13 (#1)	5 / 17	1

• Official website (in English)