Sofia, 28 March 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Bulgaria is facing the possibility of its sixth general election in just three years after talks to form a new government cabinet failed again on Wednesday.

The second-strongest parliamentary group of the pro-Western liberal-conservative PP-DB alliance on Wednesday returned the government mandate it had just received from head of state Rumen Radev.

This was the second failed attempt to form a new cabinet after Deputy Prime Minister Maria Gabriel of centre-right coalition partner Gerb-SDS had broken off talks with the PP-DB on Sunday.

There can be a total of three attempts at forming a new cabinet before there must be new elections.

The outgoing government led by Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov had resigned as planned at the beginning of March to enable a rotation of the office of prime minister, as agreed in 2023 between the government partners, the pro-Western political arch-enemies Gerb-SDS and PP-DB.

Gabriel, a former EU commissioner, was set to become head of government and Denkov her deputy. The political rivals were however unable to agree on further reforms and personnel in order to continue their coalition.

On Wednesday, Denkov justified his alliance's decision to return the mandate to form a new government by saying that there was no longer a majority in parliament for the government programme and reforms agreed with Gerb-SDS.

The EU country is now facing its sixth general election in half as many years.

In view of controversial constitutional amendments, it was initially unclear whether a new election could coincide with the European elections in Bulgaria on June 9.

Photo: BTA