Last attempt to form new cabinet in Bulgaria fails

Bulgaria is facing an early parliamentary election next spring as the last possibility of forming a new government failed on Wednesday.

The Reformist Bloc, a small party with only 22 deputies in the 240-seat Bulgarian Parliament, accepted last week the offer of President Rosen Plevneliev to form a new government within the National Assembly.

However, it failed to gather enough support from other parties.

The two largest parliamentary groups, GERB and "BSP Left Bulgaria," which have a total of 122 deputies, already refused to form a cabinet on Dec. 2 and Dec. 7 respectively.

According to the Bulgarian Constitution, if the parties fail to form a new cabinet after three attempts, Plevneliev shall appoint a caretaker government.

Plevneliev, whose term expires at the end of January 2017, cannot schedule new parliamentary elections during the last three months of his term. This has to be done by his successor, Rumen Radev, and the elections would be held in late March or early April 2017.

The GERB-led coalition government resigned in mid-November after the opposition-backed candidate Radev won the presidential election. Endi