Sunday’s snap elections in Bulgaria confirmed the demise of the kleptocratic GERB party’s rule, but also showed the difficulties that a scattered opposition will face in forming any stable alternative majority. A party of the center-right, GERB will be remembered for its leader Boyko Borissov’s thuggish behavior, its use of the state apparatus to help its corporate associates, its subservience to the West — but also the dire austerity and rampant inequalities over which it has presided.

Prime minister until the previous general election, which took place only three months ago, in this weekend’s contest Borissov and his party came in second with 23.5 percent, marginally edged out by There is Such a People (ITN; 24 percent), a celebrity-centered party which claims to uphold “direct democracy.” Worse was the score of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), which drew 13.4 percent support, a historic low. Other forces to enter parliament included the center-right Democratic Bulgaria (DB) coalition, the protest movement Stand Up! Mafia, Get Out! (ISMV); and the DPS, a party of economic liberals claiming to represent Bulgarian Muslims.

Forming a government out of this fragmented picture will be difficult. ITN, DB, and ISMV pose as the only “authentic protest parties,” and while their combined vote is not enough for a majority, they are unwilling to cooperate with the more established BSP or DPS. Bulgaria thus again faces a situation like after the previous vote in April, when ITN bet on forcing new elections, hoping that it could finally achieve a majority. In the end, on Sunday the party did improve its score, but it is far from being able to form a government on its own.