Bulgarian Socialist Party returned the third and final mandate to form a government

Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev on May 5 handed over a mandate for forming a government to the third largest parliamentary party, the centre-left Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). The leader of the party, Kornelia Ninova, said that their desire was to have a government that would solve several important things for the people - to adopt social and economic measures, to prepare a plan for recovery and sustainability and to start a real revision to dismantle the Borissov model. To this end, they asked for support from the second largest party represented in Parliament, but did not receive it. There is no objective possibility to form a cabinet, said Kornelia Ninova, who returned the mandate.

President Radev said that in this situation it is clear that “we are going to dissolve the Parliament”. If we reach the same stalemate after these elections, Bulgaria may fall into a constitutional crisis. He called on the parties to rethink their priorities and seek unity of acgtion to restore the rule of law, fight bankruptcy and poverty.

We must act responsibly, the newly formed Central Election Commission must enter into its role as soon as the Parliament is dissolved and the decree for scheduling early elections is issued, Radev said.

A possible date for the elections is July 11, he added.

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BSP was offered the third and final cabinet-forming mandate after the two largest parties in the new Parliament – outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB and TV presenter Slavi Trifonov’s “There is Such a People” also returned the mandate.

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After the return of the third mandate, the constitution obliges the President to dissolve Parliament, appoint a caretaker government and set the date for elections two months after dissolving the Parliament.