Bulgaria president calls for 5th election in 2 years

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Bulgaria’s president dissolved the National Assembly on Thursday and called early parliamentary elections for April 2 in hopes of resolving the country’s a bid to settle the European Union and NATO member’s prolonged political impasse and biting economic woes.

President Rumen Radevon also appointed a caretaker government ahead of the snap vote, which will be Bulgaria’s fifth in two years.

Radev reappointed Galab Donev, a 55-year-old independent politician, to remain at the helm of the interim Cabinet until the next parliament elects the members of a regular government.

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Because Bulgaria’s major political groups failed to form a coalition government, President Rumen Radevon is calling for early parliamentary elections.
(Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images)

The move comes after the three largest political groups in the deeply fragmented National Assembly failed to find common ground for a viable coalition government after the last early election, held in October.

The center-right GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov won 67 seats, the most of any party but well short of a majority in the 240-seat parliament. Other parties refused to form an alliance with GERB due to corruption allegations and the party’s alleged failure to implement reforms when it held power.

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The liberal We Continue the Change party and the Socialists did not find enough support to lead a government.

Bulgaria is a member of the European Union and NATO. The continuing political crisis is expected to put a brake on the country’s plans to join the euro zone at the end of 2023 and to become a member of Europe’s passport=free travel zone, the Schengen Area.

Analysts think the war in Ukraine, inflation and a growing rift between pro-Russian and pro-European camps could drive more Bulgarians to vote for nationalist parties.