Just like the GERB Party, the Bulgarian Socialist Party also refused the mandate offered by President Rosen Plevneliev for forming a government in the current Parliament. Now the president should offer such a mandate to a third political power of his choice. President Plevneliev has already announced that this would be the Reformist Bloc. Unlike GERB and BSP the bloc showed it was willing to form a government and even before it received a mandate from the president, started to call other political powers represented in Parliament for support.

Initially GERB refused to discuss providing support before the Reformist Bloc received the mandate officially, but yesterday made it clear that it would provide support. Reformers had said they would negotiate for support with other parliamentary forces in order to prevent a new government of BSP and MRF. But without support from GERB, votes from other possible supporters would not be enough for securing majority in Parliament. Therefore, talks about forming a cabinet composed of experts rather than political figures started to be heard. However, such calls did not contain much optimism as such a government would be too fragile and unstable. The Reformist Bloc and GERB understand this very well and now argue that the most realistic option is conducting early parliamentary elections. Even President Rosen Plevneliev has also admitted that the probability for forming a stable government within the current National Assembly was minimal.

In case the mandate was refused there would be several possible variants for development. One of them is President Plevneliev appointing a caretaker government. A variant of this option would be Plevneliev and President-elect Rumen Radev to compose a new cabinet. This possibility has already been discussed at a meeting between the two after the presidential elections, but later it became clear that before officially stepping into office on January 22, Radev would not be making decision related to a possible caretaker government. This means the newly elected president will appoint a caretaker government himself after taking office, as he would also need to dissolve Parliament and set a date for early parliamentary elections.

But the incumbent president may not appoint a caretaker government during the current Parliament. In this case, until the dissolution of Parliament by new president Rumen Radev, the executive power will be in the hands of the outgoing government of PM Boyko Borisov.

This complex series of procedures and hypotheses suggest a period of relative political instability until April, 2017. This also means accumulation of many urgent tasks for the next government, not only in the sphere of the interior but also in international relations. Until then, in both domestic and international spheres, patience will be most needed.

English: Alexander Markov