Rumen Radev

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.

Bulgaria is clearly going down a path of pro-European development and does not consider abandoning it, President-elect Rumen Radev has said in an interview.

As the parties in Bulgaria's parliament struggle in vain to form a new government, President Rosen Plevneliev may face the task of having to appoint a third caretaker government in his five-year-mandate.

Plevneliev's task could be far more complicated this time, however, as his mandate is about to expire. He is due to hand over office to President-elect Rumen Radev on January 22.

Right-wing Reformist Bloc coalition has said it will hand back the mandate to the Bulgarian President next week, without trying to form a new government.

Later staements from members of the bloc, however, have cast a shadow of doubt on whether this position will change.

Bulgarian President-elect Rumen Radev will not have any role in forming an interim government together with incumbent Rosen Plevneliev, the socialists' leader has said.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) has handed back the mandate to form a new government and lead the country out of the current Parliamentary crisis.

"I will not use the opportunity [to form a cabinet," Ninova has said before handing out a statement to Plevneliev to confirm the decision.

Ninova is accompanied by two core BSP members, Angel Naydenov and Zhelyo Boychev.

President Rosen Plevneliev and outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov have pondered an option to keep the current government in office until the new head of state takes over in January, daily 24 Chasa says, citing its own sources.

The scenario has been tabled after Borisov's final decision to return the mandate to Plevneliev on Friday.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has said he has a strong preference for giving the Reformist Bloc coalition a mandate to form a government.

Plevneliev, in an interview with the public broadcaster's Panorama, has put an end to speculation that he intends on giving the nationalist Patriotic Front coalition a chance to form a government later in December.

Chief of Defense Gen Constantin Popov is resigning, Focus News Agency reports.

Popov, in office since February, has cited the need to give President-elect Rumen Radev an opportunity to name the military officer who will take the post senior position in the Bulgarian Armed Forces.

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Korneliya Ninova has acknowledged her disagreement with President-elect Rumen Radev, backed by her party, on how a key reform to the judicial system should proceed.

"We have a different notion about how things would happen," she has told private bTV broadcaster in an interview.