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GERB to Seek Reformist Bloc’s Support for Forming Government Wednesday

Politics » DOMESTIC | October 14, 2014, Tuesday // 21:00

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Bulgaria: GERB to Seek Reformist Bloc’s Support for Forming Government Wednesday

The GERB's team for consultations with other political parties over forming of government (L-to-R): Rumyana Bachvarova, Menda Stoyanova, Tsetska Tsacheva following a meeting with the DPS team (Aliosman Imamov, Rushen Riza, Yordan Tsonev) on Tuesday, 14 Oc

Centre-right GERB, the biggest party in Bulgaria’s new parliament, will meet the right-wing Reformist Bloc on Wednesday for consultations over formation of government.

GERB, which won most votes in October 5 early elections but remained short of outright majority, will have 84 of the 240 seats in the new Parliament which has made it seek support from smaller parties to forge a government coalition.

The Reformist Bloc (RB), which will have 23 seats, is the fourth-biggest out of a total of eight political parties and coalitions that passed the four-percent threshold to enter parliament. RB has been widely tipped by political analysts as a highly likely partner of GERB in a future government coalition.

GERB team met separately with representatives of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) on Monday and mainly ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) on Tuesday, which are the second- and the third biggest parties in the new Parliament. The consultations with both BSP and DPS failed to produce agreements to support a GERB-led minority government.

GERB and RB teams will meet at 1pm Sofia time on Wednesday in Sofia.

RB leaders have issued conflicting messages about the party’s intentions to enter a government coalition with GERB, including the announcement on election night that RB would not accept GERB leader Boyko Borisov as prime minister in a future coalition cabinet. Radan Kanev, one of the RB leaders, admitted later that the statement had been a mistake.