‘Last chance’: Bulgarian President hands government-forming mandate to Parliament’s smallest group
At a brief ceremony on July 29, Bulgarian head of state President Roumen Radev handed Parliament’s smallest group, populist ITN, the third and final mandate to try to form a government.
“This is the last chance facing the 50th National Assembly to produce a government,” Radev said.
The handing over of the mandate was a sequel to the first two mandates, handed in succession to Parliament’s two largest groups, having come to nothing.
The constitution gives the head of state a free hand in deciding to which parliamentary group to hand the third mandate, and Radev chose ITN, which has 16 MPs in Bulgaria’s 240-seat National Assembly.
Radev told the ITN delegation: “Amid the conflicts between the parties, you are demonstrating the resilience of your parliamentary group”.
ITN has said that it will hold talks with all other parliamentary groups.
Toshko Yordanov, who headed the ITN delegation as the party’s parliamentary leader, told Radev: “We will have extremely practical and sensible discussions.
“We will talk to everyone, including independent MPs,” Yordanov said, referring to the 39 members of the National Assembly no longer members of a parliamentary group.
He said that a future administration needs to start with the widest possible support.
The process of talks would be “extremely transparent,” Yordanov said.
The constitution allows leeway in the timing of the return of the third mandate, whether fulfilled or not.
If the third mandate is not fulfilled, the head of state must schedule parliamentary elections within two months of the return of the mandate.
(Screenshot via BNT’s live streaming)
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