Government of Bulgaria

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has categorically declined to appoint his own interim cabinet after the elected government resigned in November.

Instead, Plevneliev has said he stands ready to put his approval stamp on any caretaker administration proposed by his successor, President-elect Rumen Radev.

The Reformist Bloc (RB) has returned a mandate handed out by President Rosen Plevneliev to form a government, clearing the way for an early election this spring.

The RB, a loose alliance of centrist and right-wing parties, is the junior partner in the outgoing Bulgarian government.

After the Reformist Bloc and GERB announced that they will not form a government with the third mandate within the framework of the current Parliament, BSP demanded that President Rossen Plevneliev form a caretaker government.

The two allies in Bulgaria's outgoing government have abandoned plans to forge a new ruling coalition, tilting the country toward early elections.

"There will be no cabinet. We are not capable of reaching an agreement within the 43rn National Assembly [Parliament]," news website Mediapool.bg quotes the head of the biggest party's parliamentary faction, Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

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.

Officials of the biggest party in Bulgaria, GERB, are set to meet the Reformist Bloc (RB), their allies in the outgoing cabinet, in a last effort to agree on a new cabinet.

Two days after he admitted the possibility of a new government within the framework of the 43rd Parliament with the mandate of the Reformist Bloc, outgoing Prime Minister and leader of GERB Boyko Borisov rejected adamantly the possibility of him being Prime Minister or of his party participating in the government with ministers.

Patriotic Front (PF) coalition co-head Valeri Simeonov has set three conditions to support a new Bulgarian government formed under the current legislature.

Forming a new Bulgarian government within the current Parliament should not be deemed impossible anymore, main ruling GERB party leader and outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has said.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is interested in financing a commercial project for the construction of the Belene NPP, reported the government press centre.