Bulgaria faces another snap vote as latest bid to form new government fails

Sofia: Bulgaria is heading for its seventh parliamentary elections in three years after the last of three political parties tapped by President Rumen Radev to form a coalition government failed due to lack of support.

The Balkan country has been plagued by revolving-door governments since anticorruption protests in 2020 helped topple a coalition led by the centre-right populist GERB party.

The small populist ITN party, which was tasked with forming a new government by Radev a week ago, returned its mandate on Monday. In talks with other parties, it was unable to persuade 121 of the 240 lawmakers required to support the formation of a government.

After a meeting with Radev, Toshko Yordanov, chairman of the ITN parliamentary group, told reporters on Monday that the parties were unable to find common ground on forming a new government.

“The political wisdom of one party was not enough to make a decision, … so we return the mandate unfulfilled,” said Yordanov, whose party came sixth in the last elections held in June, winning just 16 seats in the 240-member parliament.

Radev must now appoint a caretaker prime minister and has days to call another snap parliamentary election.

“The spiral of inconclusive elections continues, … and [it] not only causes irritation but also unlocks a number of destructive processes,” Radev said.

“I appeal for a meaningful political debate and fair play in the weeks ahead. Otherwise, we are doomed to repeat procedures that more and more people see as pointless,” he added.

GERB, currently the largest party in parliament, and the reformist We Continue the Change (PP) had each failed to form a stable coalition after the inconclusive June 8 elections.

They were triggered by the collapse in March of a coalition comprising GERB, which had held power for much of the previous 15 years, and the PP.

GERB came first in the June vote, winning 68 seats, while the PP secured 39.

Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest member state and one of its most corrupt, needs a period of stable government to improve the flow of EU funds into its creaking infrastructure.