site.btaSocialists Return Government Mandate Unfulfilled

BSP for Bulgaria is meeting with President Rumen Radev on Tuesday morning to return the unfulfilled mandate he offered them to try to form a government. The head of state said he would receive them at 10:00.

BSP leader Kornelia Ninova announced that they were returning the mandate last Friday as per a decision of the party leadership and MPs, after it transpired that the Socialists would be unable to rally enough support for a government within this Parliament.

Testing the ground for a government, BSP for Bulgaria tried to bring together the leaders of all parliamentary parties but only three showed up (GERB, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and Bulgarian Rise) and the other three (Continue the Change, Democratic Bulgaria and Vazrazhdane) turned down the invitation.

The exploratory mandate to form a government ended up with BSP for Bulgaria after two earlier attempts failed: first by GERB-UDF, in its position as the largest political group in Parliament, and then by Continue the Change, the second largest group.

Under Article 99 of the Constitution of Bulgaria, when no agreement on the formation of a government is reached, the President appoints a caretaker government, dissolves the National Assembly and schedules new elections within two months. The President's act on the dissolution of the National Assembly also establishes the date of the new general elections.

The Constitution does not set a timeframe for the appointment of a caretaker government and the dissolution of Parliament, and the timing is entirely up to the President.

Experts believe the general elections will most likely be in April. They will be the fifth since April 2021.