Bulgarian Socialist Party accepts mandate to try to form government
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) accepted on July 18 the third and final mandate to try to get a government elected, failing which Bulgaria will head to early parliamentary elections.
The mandate was accepted from President Roumen Radev by BSP parliamentary leader Georgi Svilenski, who was part of a delegation also including party leader Kornelia Ninova.
In the brief ceremony, shown live on public television, Svilenski told Radev that he would make every effort to see the mandate fulfilled, because the public needed calm and certainty.
Earlier on July 18, Ninova repeated that the BSP would offer the post of candidate Prime Minister to the Kiril Petkov-Assen Vassilev We Continue the Change (WCC) party because WCC is the largest parliamentary group.
Asked who the candidate would be, Ninova said: “We will talk about the Prime Minister later, after we receive the mandate from the President”.
“We have a seven-day deadline to submit a name for Prime Minister and then there is more time after that to create a Cabinet,” Ninova said.
The BSP hopes to build an electable coalition government involving the four partners in the erstwhile December 2021 ruling coalition – WCC, the BSP, Democratic Bulgaria and ITN.
Ninova has ruled out talks with Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
Attempts to form a government, after the Petkov government was voted out of office on June 22, reached the third-mandate stage after WCC gave up its attempt after failing to rally enough support and after GERB-UDF handed back the second mandate without attempting to form a government.
(Screenshot of Svilenski and Radev via BNT)
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