Bulgarian party gets chance to form cabinet, avoid snap election

Bloomberg

Bulgaria’s president will give the Socialist Party a mandate to form a new government in a last-ditch bid to avoid triggering the fourth election in less than two years.
It’s the European Union member’s final chance to quickly quell a political crisis that ousted Prime Minister Kiril Petkov’s four-party coalition in a no-confidence motion last month. But the Socialists, who were part of Petkov’s ruling alliance, face an uphill fight to muster support, as they have said they’ll hold talks only with its coalition partners, who were unable to agree on a new governing majority when the prime minister had his chance last month.
The second largest party, Gerb, handed back the mandate without holding talks. With opinion polls suggesting an election may produce a hung parliament, the country of almost 7 million people may struggle to produce a workable government soon.
“This is our duty,” Yavor Bozhkankov, caucus secretary of the Socialists, said in a televised interview Monday. “The hypothesis of new elections is rather a hypothesis of a spiral of elections.”