President Radev handed over a mandate to BSP to seek to form a government

President Rumen Radev on January 16 handed the third exploratory mandate for forming a government to the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP for Bulgaria). The mandate was received by the chairwoman of the BSP parliamentary group, Kornelia Ninova.

"After the failure of the first and second mandate to form a government, in accordance with the Constitution, I assign you to name a candidate for prime minister. I have chosen your political group in search of the best chance of forming a functioning regular government with clear political responsibility," Rumen Radev said.

In his words, in times of strong political confrontation, BSP has succeeded in keeping up the dialogue with all political parties represented in Parliament and has shown that it is capable of making concessions, reaching agreements, coalescing and governing together with its ideological opponents, as well as interacting equally well with both new and old political groups in the Bulgarian Parliament.

"I hope that the BSP's aspiration for a strong social policy and the strengthening of Bulgarian parliamentarism will be another motive for forming a regular government," Rumen Radev added.

"We understand the gravity of the situation and the responsibility we are entrusted with. We will do everything that depends on us to have a regular government. We have proved in previous attempts that we can negotiate reasonably and calmly with our colleagues from the other parliamentary parties, showing responsibility for the national interest of the country. We will continue to seek agreement and form a regular cabinet, which the country needs at this point," said Kornelia Ninova.

After the first and second largest parliamentary groups, GERB-UDF and "We Continue the Change", failed to fulfil the mandates they were given, this is the third and last chance to form a regular cabinet within the life of the incumbent 48th National Assembly.

In accordance with the constitution, the third mandate goes to a parliamentary group of the President's choice.The third mandate is not handed to a nominated prime minister, as in the first two mandates, but to a parliamentary group.

This is the fourth time over a period of nearly two years (after the elections in 2021) that the head of state has chosen to give BSP the third and last mandate for forming a cabinet. So far, their attempts to form a government have failed.

BSP is expected to convene the party's decison-making National Council during the week and decide which parliamentary groups it will seek support from.

Images by Dessislava Kulelieva