SOFIA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The third and last attempt to form a new coalition government in Bulgaria failed Thursday as There Is Such People (ITN) party declined to join, paving the way for snap parliamentary elections probably in June.
The two largest parliamentary forces, the GERB-UDF coalition that holds 69 seats in the 240-member parliament and the coalition of We Continue the Change -- Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) that holds 63 seats, failed to fulfill the mandate of forming a new government respectively earlier this week.
Then President Rumen Radev turned to ITN, which holds 11 seats in parliament. However, ITN rejected the invitation on Thursday.
According to the Bulgarian Constitution, after the third failure, Radev is obliged to appoint a caretaker government and schedule new parliamentary elections within two months.
During the meeting with ITN, Radev said that he would immediately begin meetings with all potential prime minister candidates.
"I will do my best to speed up the process of forming a caretaker cabinet," Radev said.
The need for a new government arose after Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov from the PP-DB resigned on March 5, adhering to a power-sharing agreement with GERB-UDF when his government was elected in June 2023.
According to the deal, Denkov was to serve as prime minister for nine months, followed by GERB-UDF's representative Mariya Gabriel, who has been deputy prime minister and foreign minister in Denkov's cabinet, for another nine months. Additionally, ministerial changes could only be made with mutual consent of the two coalitions.
An automatic rotation of a prime minister with his deputy is not allowed under the Bulgarian constitution, therefore Denkov had to resign. ■