Bulgaria is heading for its seventh parliamentary elections in three years after the last of three political parties tapped by President Rumen Radev to form a coalition government failed due to lack of support.
The Balkan country has been plagued by revolving-door governments since anticorruption protests in 2020 helped topple a coalition led by the centre-right populist GERB party.
The small populist ITN party, which was tasked with forming a new government by Radev a week ago, returned its mandate on Monday. In talks with other parties, it was unable to persuade 121 of the 240 lawmakers required to support the formation of a government.
After a meeting with Radev, Toshko Yordanov, chairman of the ITN parliamentary group, told reporters on Monday that the parties were unable to find common ground on forming a new government.
“The political wisdom of one party was not enough to make a decision, … so we return the mandate unfulfilled,” said Yordanov, whose party came sixth in the last elections held in June, winning just 16 seats in the 240-member parliament.
