Over the third quarter of 2008, the political situation in Bulgaria was de­termined mainly by the strong public and political response provoked by the June reports issued by the European Anti-Fraud Of fi ce, OLAF, and the Euro­pean Commission itself concerning the situation in the country and the prog­ress it has made in the areas of internal order and justice. This brought to the fore the question not only of fi nding mechanisms to overcome the justi fi ed criticism of the European institutions, but also of demanding political account­ability for the situation in which the country has been currently plunged into. The relationships among the three parties of the governing coalition re­main rather complicated but this by no means raises the issue about the sta­bility of the tri-partite coalition for the time being at least. The fact that the non-con fi dence vote tabled by the opposition shortly before the parliamentary recess in July was conveniently overcome in Parliament is a testimony to the accuracy of this conclusion. The future of the tri-partite governing coalition will depend to a large extent on the political strategies, which the individual parties therein will employ with a view to the upcoming general election next year. Despite the common actions undertaken by the GERB Party, the UDF, and DSB of late, GERB categorically claims that it will run next year’s general elec­tion on it own. At the MEP elections, which will also take place next year, a joint party slate of the three formations looks like a plausible strategy for run­ning these elections but this possibility is still at the stage of negotiations and the GERB Party leadership has not made its fi rm decision to this effect yet.