site.btaPresident Radev Will Hand Third Government-Forming Mandate to BSP for Bulgaria

April 29 (BTA) -President Rumen Radev will hand on May 5
 an exploratory mandate to form a government to the prime
minister designated by the third largest parliamentary party BSP
 for Bulgaria, his press secretariat said on Thursday

BSP for Bulgaria floor leader and socialist leader Kornelia
Ninova told a news briefing in Parliament that a decision about
what to do with the mandate will be made by the BSP's collective
 bodies.

"I will call an extraordinary meeting of the BSP's Executive
Bureau which will set the date and time for convening the
party's National Council which will discuss the situation and
will make a decision about what to do with the third mandate,"
said Ninova.

Asked about which parliamentary groups BSP will negotiate with
about a possible cabinet, she said that this will be decided by
the BSP's National Council. "Of course, negotiations with GERB
are out of the question," she said.

Later in the day GERB urged BSP to return the mandate quickly so
 that a course be set to early elections. GERB-UDF floor leader
Dessilava Atanassova told journalists: "I would like to call on
the Bulgarian Socialist Party when deciding whether they will
hold any consultations, to return the mandate quickly because it
 is a matter of maths that without GERB and There Is Such a
People, a government cannot be formed." Atanassova said that BSP
 do not want to negotiate with GERB and for their part GERB have
 decided not to participate in government with BSP. There Is
Such a People have said too that they wonТt enter any coalitions
 with GERB so there is no point in holding on to the mandate.
"The mandate should be returned as quickly as possible,
Parliament should dissolve and elections should be
scheduled,"she said. Otherwise, according to her with every
single day it is possible that Parliament may pass controversial
 and lobbyist bills.

Democratic Bulgaria cannot back a government on the mandate of
BSP, said Democratic Bulgaria floor leader Hristo Ivanov.
According to him, new elections are inevitable.

He said that the he had predicted this outcome already on
election night. According to him "it is clear that MPs are
campaigning instead of making legislation." RI/PP


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