Bulgaria's President to Ask DPS to Form New Cabinet 'Wednesday'

President Plevneliev will ask the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), to form a new cabinet on July 30, local daily 24 Chasa reported, citing the President's press office.

DPS, the junior partner in the outgoing Socialist-Liberal coalition government, is the third largest political party represented in the 240-seat chamber.

DPS, the third largest political party represented in the 240-seat chamber, will be handed a mandate to form a cabinet within the current parliament after the government led by Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski resigned last week after serving less than a third of its four-year term of office.

The two biggest parties in the National Assembly, opposition GERB and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the largest partner in the government coalition, have already refused to form a new cabinet under an agreement among political leaders that no party will seek such a role within the current Parliament.

Under Bulgaria’s constitution, if the government resigns, President Rosen Plevneliev has to ask each of the political parties represented in Parliament  to form a new cabinet.

In case no party succeeds to do so or declines to form a cabinet, the head of state has to dissolve the chamber, appoint a caretaker government and set a date for early elections.