The President of Bulgaria, Rouman Radev, will offer to the candidate Prime Minister from the BSP (Bulgarian Socialist Party) the third and last mandate on July 18 around 5 pm to seek to form a government as per a brief statement in the appointments schedule on the Presidency website.
If this last stage of handing over the mandates to seek to form a government proves to be unproductive, Bulgaria will conduct an early parliamentary election later in 2022.
We Continue the Change (WCC) party of Kiril Petkov-Assen Vassilev, as the largest group of the Parliament, got the first mandate but returned it unfulfilled, stating that it had not rallied enough support in the House to get his government elected.
The second mandate was given to GERB-UDF, the second largest group of the Parliament, which returned it instantly, stating that it didn’t consider electing a government in this Parliament would be feasible.
The constitution provides the President with a free hand to choose the parliamentary group to which he wants to offer the third and final mandate.
The announcement that the mandate will go to the BSP, the Parliament’s third-largest group, follows consultations that Radev conducted on July 15 with all the seven groups of Parliament.
During the consultations held on Friday with Radev, BSP leader Kornelia Ninova stated that we completely understand the complex situation in which the nation finds itself and declared the preparedness of the BSP parliamentary group to make an effort to ensure a functioning Parliament and stable government if getting the third mandate.
Ninova stated that the basis of the talks regarding forming a Cabinet must be the programme recently made by the rest three governing coalition partners, which drafts clear deadlines and priorities related to a proper social policy, a stable economy as well as prevention of corruption.
Ninova further stated that the candidate Prime Minister must come from WCC, given that the Petkov-Vassilev party is the Parliament’s largest group.
