GERB

Bulgaria's biggest party GERB may join a new government if one is formed within the current legislature, but will not head it, GERB Deputy Chairman Tsvetan Tsvetanov has said.

Bulgarian right-wing party the Reformist Bloc makes its final efforts on Monday to form a new government within the current parliament together with potential coalition partners from the leading centre-right party GERB and the nationalist Patriotic Front coalition, the PF.

Right-wing Reformist Bloc (RB) coalition will only make offers on a next cabinet in case the President gives them a mandate to form it, RB officials have said.

"It is up to the interim government to propose an EU Commissioner," Bulgaria's outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has said.

Speaking to reporters after meeting President Rosen Plevneliev, Borisov has said his party, GERB, will not engage in the choice of the next Bulgarian commissioner who will take over from Kristalina Georgieva in January.

Bulgaria's outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has returned the mandate to form a government on Friday after receiving it from President Rosen Plevneliev.

Borisov has only kept the mandate for less than a minute.

He has made clear his party, GERB, which is the biggest in Parliament, will not seek a new cabinet within the current legislature.

External pressure is probably being applied on Bulgaria to avoid the formation of a nationalist-led cabinet, Patriotic Front co-leader Krasimir Karakachanov has said.

In an interview with private bTV broadcaster, he has pointed to the PF's desire to change relations with the EU as the main reason for non-Bulgarian actors to work against a possible cabinet composed by his coalition.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev will begin the last-ditch effort to secure a new government on Friday to avoid a new early election.

Plevneliev will hand over a government mandate to GERB, Bulgaria's biggest party, which has already declared it will return it.

Bulgaria's leading party, GERB, has said it will not support either of its former coalition partners - the Reformist Bloc, or the Patriotic Front - if the President mandates them to form a new government within the current parliament.

A "hardline" lawkamer with Bulgaria's biggest party has admitted the possibility of conservatives and socialists joining hands "in a certain moment" to form the country's next government.

Bulgaria's Parliament passed the state budget draft at first reading on Friday morning, BGNES wire service reports.

The vote dashes uncertainty that loomed over its adoption after a number of political parties had said they would not back the text as proposed by the outgoing Finance Ministry team.