Small Bulgarian ITN party gets mandate to form next government

SOFIA (Reuters) – The President of Bulgaria Pens Radev gave the mandate to form a government on Monday to a small party that finished sixth in last month’s parliamentary elections, the latest attempt to form a stable coalition after last month’s inconclusive election.

The There Is Such a People (ITN) party appears to be failing where two larger parties – the centre-right GERB and the reformist We Continue the Change (PP) – failed. If the anti-elitist ITN fails to form a government, Bulgaria would be heading for its seventh parliamentary election since 2021.

Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest member and one of its most corrupt countries, has been plagued by government turnover since anti-corruption protests in 2020 helped topple a GERB-led coalition.

ITN, which won just 16 seats in the 240-seat parliament in the June 8 election, has been given no time limit to try to form a new government.

“We are very aware of the serious crisis the country is in and the responsibility this third mandate entails,” said Toshko Yordanov, leader of the ITN faction in parliament, after receiving the mandate.

“We will hold talks with all parliamentary parties, including independent representatives. The negotiation process will be extremely transparent, for everyone,” he said.

The June elections were triggered by the fall in March of a coalition consisting of GERB, which had been in power for most of the previous 15 years, and the PP party.

GERB came out on top in the June vote, with 68 seats, while the PP party secured 39. Although both are largely pro-EU and pro-market, they are plagued by personal rivalries and disagreements.

Bulgaria needs a period of stable, well-functioning government to accelerate the flow of EU funds to its creaking infrastructure and give the country a push towards joining the eurozone and full participation in Europe’s open Schengen area.

Plans to join the eurozone have already been postponed twice after inflation targets were missed.

(Reporting by Stoyan Nenov in Sofia and Ivana Sekularac in Belgrade; Editing by Gareth Jones)