Government formation fails in Bulgaria: Country heading to early elections

In Bulgaria, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov's government resigned on March 6. Efforts to form a new government in the country have yielded no results. Following the decision of Mariya Gabriel, the prime ministerial candidate nominated by the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party—which holds the largest group in parliament—to withdraw her candidacy, Bulgaria is expected to head to early elections.

In a statement to the press yesterday, Gabriel announced that the coalition negotiations she had been conducting in recent days on behalf of the GERB party with the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) alliance, which has a group in parliament, had ended in failure. Gabriel, who withdrew her candidacy for prime minister and retracted the cabinet draft she had prepared, had submitted her decision to parliament in writing.

Meanwhile, leaders of political parties outside the PP-DB alliance in parliament had stated that the government formation attempts made so far were unproductive and that they preferred the country to go to early parliamentary elections.

Gabriel had been serving as deputy prime minister and foreign minister in the government of Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, who resigned on March 6.

President Rumen Radev had tasked Gabriel, the prime ministerial candidate of the GERB party, which holds the largest group in parliament, with forming a government on March 18 following Denkov's resignation.

HOW WILL THE PROCESS WORK?

According to constitutional procedure, President Rumen Radev must task the second and third largest groups in parliament, respectively, with forming a government before setting a new date for early elections.

Radev is expected to give the second mandate to form a cabinet to the PP-DB.

GERB leader Boyko Borisov announced that they would not support any other cabinet draft in the current parliamentary format. Borisov stated that his party prefers to go to early elections.

Delyan Peevski, co-chair of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (HÖH) party—which is composed mostly of Turks and Muslims and provided external support to the Nikolay Denkov government, in which GERB and PP-DB were coalition partners—announced that his party also wants early elections. Peevski also noted that they would not support any other cabinet that could be formed in the current parliament.

Unless there is a radical change in the country's political arena, early elections are expected to be held after the European Parliament elections on June 9.