Bulgaria to head to early elections as BSP abandons bid to form government
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) is giving up its bid to form a government, making early parliamentary elections inevitable.
BSP leader Kornelia Ninova said on January 20, following a meeting of the party’s executive bureau, that the BSP would on January 23 hand back to President Roumen Radev its mandate to seek to form a government. Later, the President’s office said that the ceremony would take place on January 24.
The BSP was the recipient on January 16 of the third and final mandate to try to get a government elected.
Following Bulgaria’s October 2 2022 early parliamentary elections, the largest parliamentary group, GERB-UDF, received the first mandate, which failed. The second mandate, handed to the second-largest group, We Continue the Change, also proved fruitless.
Ninova convened a “leader’s meeting” on January 20, attended by only some party leaders, and at which it was apparent – lest there have been any doubt – that early elections were inevitable, as Ninova conceded after the meeting.
It is now up to Radev to announce when he will dissolve the current National Assembly and name a date for early parliamentary elections. It will be the fifth time in three years that Bulgaria elects a legislature.
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