Bulgarian Socialist Party

Bulgaria will hold its third parliamentary election in just one year as parliament will be dismissed in mid-September and the president must schedule early elections in late October or early November.

At the same time, the country will also hold presidential elections, in which current President Rumen Radev is set to be the absolute favourite.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party will delay the return of the mandate to form a government at least until September 10th. This became clear after a briefing by the Socialists on Sunday.

The left argues for the need to adopt a budget update, which requires a functioning parliament. However, it must be dissolved if the National Assembly fails to form a government on its third attempt.

Te Bulgarian Socialist Party will try to form a government," BSP leader Korneliya Ninova said for BNT minutes before being handed the third exploratory mandate for forming a government by the President.

Kornelia Ninova, the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, casts her vote at parliamentary elections in March 2017. Photo: EPA/VASSIL DONEV

The BSP, which came third in the most recent polls in July, is being given the chance to form a government after failed attempts by the winning party There is Such a Nation and former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's GERB.

President Rumen Radev Friday presented the third government-forming mandate to the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), which is the third largest parliamentary group in the 46th National Assembly. It is the last chance for this Parliament to try to form a government after the biggest and second biggest groups, There Is Such a People (TISP) and GERB, were unable or unwilling to do that.

Gerb leder and former PM Boyko Borissov speaking after the July elections in Sofia, Bulgaria, 12 July 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

However, hinting at its ambitions to form a government soon, despite returning the mandate to President Rumen Radev, GERB also announced a projected cabinet as a sign that it is ready to offer a new government at any time. 

In a parliamentary declaration, the "There is Such a People" party (TISP) accused the representatives of the so-called "parties of the protest" - "Democratic Bulgaria", "Stand up BG! We are coming!", as well as the BSP ofhypocrisy, lack of parliamentarianism and craving for cabinet posts during the negotiationson forming a government with the mandate of TISP.

The leader of There is Such a People (TISP), Slavi Trifonov, Saturday reiterated on Bulgarian National Radio that his party will not support a government on the third cabinet-forming mandate, which under the Constitution President Rumen Radev has to hand either to the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Democratic Bulgaria or Rise Up BG! Here We Come!

The Bulgarian political world was shocked into action on August 10 when the party that won the country's July 11 elections, There is Such a Nation, withdrew its ministerial nominations, including a large number of young unknowns who were educated abroad, one day before a scheduled parliamentary approval vote.  

An honour guard in front of parliament in Sofia, Bulgaria in July. Photo: EPA/EFE / VASSIL DONEV

"This means new elections," the leader of the party, Slavi Trifonov, said in a video statement.