As the elections of October 1991 approached, Bulgarian society appeared to be as divided as at any time in its history. The most visible results of post-Zhivkov change - rising prices, declining social services and the ostentation of those who grew fat on the proceeds of private enterprise - were an affront to people on fixed incomes, especially pensioners and employees of ailing state firms. The BSP tapped these resentments by proposing a slowed-down model of economic reform and the retention of some measure of state planning. For the SDS and other non-socialists, however, Bulgaria's salvation depended on a total purge of Communist influence , and the wholesale adoption of a free market - whatever the social cost.

In the end the elections were a close-run thing . The SDS received 34 percent of the vote; the BSP 33 percent; and the DPS held the balance of power with 7.5 percent. Despite the narrow margin of victory, the result was hailed as a turning-point in Bulgarian history by the BSP's opponents - but claims that Bulgarian socialism had been finally laid to rest proved to be premature.

The new government of prime minister Filip Dimitrov initiated a crash programme of economic reform, removing barriers to foreign investment, speeding up the privatization of state-run firms, and establishing the ground rules for restitutsiya or " restitution " - the process by which property and land nationalized by the Communists could be reclaimed by its former owners. Public spending was slashed and wages in the state sector were held down, producing much social hardship and polarizing the country even further. The winter of 1991/92 was characterized by extensive power cuts , after former Soviet republics began to demand hard currency for the electricity they used to supply so cheaply.

The first challenge to the post-socialist order came in the presidential elections of January 1992, when Zhelyu Zhelev only narrowly beat off the challenge of BSP-sponsored candidate Velko Vâlkanov. As well as pointing to declining living standards, Vâlkanov had exploited growing unease about alleged "Turkish" influence in Bulgarian affairs resulting from the DPS's central position in political life.

Failure to win an outright majority in October 1991 had left the SDS dependent on the support of the predominantly Turkish DPS in order to remain in government. However, the Dimitrov government's reluctance to give aid to the economically depressed tobacco-producing regions of the south - where much of the DPS's bedrock support comes from - soon led to a split.

Without DPS support Dimitrov lost a parliamentary vote of confidence in December 1992, and President Zhelev called upon economist Lyuben Berov to form an administration of non-party technocrats. Although Berov promised to continue the market reforms of the SDS while trying to limit their more socially harmful consequences, it was clear that Bulgaria's push towards capitalism had been put on hold