Bulgarian Parties to Make Last Bid to Form Govt

Bulgarian right-wing party the Reformist Bloc makes its final efforts on Monday to form a new government within the current parliament together with potential coalition partners from the leading centre-right party GERB and the nationalist Patriotic Front coalition, the PF.

GERB and the PF, however, have made it clear that their participation in any cabinet formed with the mandate handed to the Reformist Bloc by President Rosen Plevneliev on December 13 will come at a cost.

Following a series of U-turns in his position, outgoing prime minister and GERB leader Boyko Borissov is expected to meet the Reformists on Monday and demand guarantees that parliament will quickly vote for a new election law, replacing Bulgaria's current proportional voting system with a majoritarian one.

The change in the electoral system was backed by over 2.5 million Bulgarians at a national referendum that took place together with the latest presidential elections on November 6.

Borissov, who returned the mandate to form a government that was given to him by Plevneliev earlier this month, hinted that he could postpone stepping down as prime minister to allow time for the electoral code to be changed in line with the referendum.

"Otherwise the elections will not be legitimate," Borissov said on Thursday following a European Council meeting in Brussels.

Bulgaria was plunged into crisis on November 14, when Borissov resigned as prime minister following the defeat of his GERB party's presidential candidate, Tsetska Tsacheva, at the hands of Rumen Radev, an ex-air force general, who was nominated by the Socialists.

Since then, Plevneliev has been trying to convince the major political parties to agree on forming a new government within the existing...