The third and last attempt to form a new government within Bulgaria’s current legislature failed on Tuesday, and the country is facing another snap election in spring.
The coalition led by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), currently with 24 seats in the newly elected 240-member parliament, did not manage to secure enough support from the other parties.
The BSP accepted an exploratory mandate from Bulgarian President Rumen Radev on Jan. 16, after the two largest parliamentary groups, the GERB-UDF coalition (67 seats) and “We Continue the Change” (PP) coalition (53 seats), failed to fulfil the mandate in December 2022 and January this year.
According to the Bulgarian Constitution, after this latest failure, Radev is obliged to dissolve the parliament and schedule for a new election, which have to be held within two months after the dissolution of the parliament.
“Apparently, we are going to (have) another early parliamentary election,” Radev said at a meeting with Korneliya Ninova, leader of the BSP, when Ninova formally informed him of the failure.
Radev said that he would meet the Central Election Commission later on Tuesday and would decide on the election date after that.
Bulgaria’s former government was ousted in a no-confidence vote on June 22, 2022, which resulted in the snap election on Oct. 2.
