Bulgaria’s GERB Party Given ‘Doomed’ Mandate to Govern

Rumen Radev (right) and Mariya Gabriel, the GERB-SDS party's candidate for prime minister, at a ceremony to hand over the mandate to form a new government in Sofia on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

Gabriel said she wants to build a collaborative cabinet with the party's opponents by finding common goals - although any warming of relations between the opposition and GERB remains unlikely.

"My proposal would be for an expert government, one that is united around clear priorities that have a single goal - the well-being of Bulgarian citizens", said Gabriel. Also on Monday, Gabriel left her previous position as a EU Commissioner.

However the Bulgarian Socialist Party stated the same day that it will not enter coalition talks with GERB, leaving the party with no chance of mustering a majority in parliament.

In a surprise development on Monday, GERB was also criticised by its former ally, Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev, for being "a political mafia" .

GERB, running alongside the United Democratic Forces, won the inconclusive April 2 elections with 26.5 per cent of the vote, slightly ahead of the We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria alliance led by reformist ex-premier Kiril Petkov on 24.5 per cent.

If GERB returns the mandate without forming a government, the president will hand it to Petkov's alliance.

Since the elections, Borissov has tried to lure the opposition onto his side by appearing ready to reform GERB, a party that has been hit by corruption allegations, while also promising judicial reform that would see the ousting of Chief Prosecutor Geshev, a move that was also confirmed as a future goal by Gabriel and has been demanded for years by the opposition.

Not long ago, such a move would have seemed...