Nationalist Leader Stands Ready to Be Bulgaria's PM

A nationalist party leader in Bulgaria has declared his readiness to become Prime Minister if the coalition he co-chairs manages to set up a government.

"The country will not have a cabinet for six months [if no government is formed.] The administration is not functioning properly anymore. We need a stable government in order not to deepen the political crisis," news website Dnevnik.bg quotes him as saying.

Karakachanov, who came third at the presidential election earlier in November, argued the Patriotic Front (in which his party, VMRO, is one of the two main organizations) would only avoid consultations with the two ethnic Turk-dominated parties within this Parliament, the DPS and DOST, if offered a cabinet mandate.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev is to hand over the mandate to form a government to the two biggest parties in Parliament and, possibly, to a third one of his choice.

The Patriotic Front has so far been the only parliamentary force that has voiced readiness to work toward a new cabinet.

The anti-migrant coalition backed the government of Boyko Borisov before the latter resigned over the loss of his candidate in the presidential vote, but did not have ministers in the cabinet.

The PF benefited largely from the inflow of migrants in the summer.

Plevneliev, however, is not obligated by the law to hand the mandate to the PF and may choose another party.

If no cabinet is set up, Bulgaria will not have an elected administration at least until April as the incumbent President, leaving in January, cannot disolve Parliament and call an early election less then three months before his term ends. The task will lie with his successor, Rumen Radev.