Bulgarian President to begin on June 24 consultations on forming a government

Bulgarian head of state President Roumen Radev will on June 24 begin the process of consultations, mandated by the constitution, with all groups in the 50th National Assembly ahead of handing over the first mandate to seek to form a government.

The presidency’s website said that Radev first would meet representatives of Parliament’s largest group, Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF, at 9am.

Once the process of consultations is completed, GERB-UDF – as the largest parliamentary group – will be the first to receive a mandate to seek to form a government.

Radev has scheduled a meeting with Parliament’s second-largest group, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, at 11am, and with the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria group at 2pm.

Radev’s diary did not give details of intended meetings with the remaining four parliamentary groups – Vuzrazhdane, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, ITN and Velichie.

Earlier this week, Borissov said that GERB-UDF would not proceed to try to form a government unless its candidate for Speaker of the National Assembly, Raya Nazaryan, was elected.

Nazaryan got the post in a vote on June 20, with the backing of GERB-UDF, the MRF and ITN.

Borissov now says that he wants a governing coalition that includes WCC-DB, which since Bulgaria’s June 9 early National Assembly elections has been insisting that it will be in opposition.

Borissov has said that if a government may only be formed on the basis of the first mandate, and if that does not happen, Bulgaria will again go to early parliamentary elections.

MRF parliamentary leader Delyan Peevski – sanctioned by the US and the UK for large-scale corruption, which he denies – has called for a governing majority made up of “Euro-Atlantic” groups.

Vuzrazhdane has said that it will only seek to form a government if it is handed the third and final mandate.

ITN has said that it will not support a government proposed on the basis of the first and second mandates, and wants to receive the third mandate, on the basis of which – it says – it would propose an “expert” government.

(Photo: president.bg)

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