Bulgaria’s president asked the Socialists to form a new government, amid a long-running political crisis.
Rumen Radev gave the Socialist Party a mandate to try and create a new government in a last attempt to avoid the country’s fifth general election in two years.
Amid a cost-of-living crisis and the war in Ukraine, Bulgarian politics has taken a bumpy turn recently, with successive governments collapsing due to resignations and no-confidence votes.
Although their chances of success are dim, Socialist leader Kornelia Ninova said her party would make every effort to establish “a regular government, which this country badly needs at this point.”
Radev’s move came after the two main groups in Bulgaria’s parliament – the centre-right GERB party and the reformist We Continue the Change party — failed to find enough support to form their own coalitions.
Political parties with the strongest election results are given the first two mandates, but a third one can be offered to one of the president’s choosing.
