The staunchly anti-communist Democrats for Strong Bulgaria turned their backs on coalition talks with Simeon II National Movement in the wake of their invitation to the Socialists to form a government. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia News Agency)
The staunchly anti-communist Democrats for Strong Bulgaria turned their backs on coalition talks with Simeon II National Movement in the wake of their invitation to the Socialists to form a government.
"Democrats for Strong Bulgaria will not support a government with the participation of the Bulgarian Socialist Party," says a statement of the party, headed by the former prime minister Ivan Kostov.
According to Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, Simeon Saxe-Coburg has choked on his promise not to ally with the Socialists by enabling them again to appoint the prime minister-designate.
SIINM has demanded that a member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party be nominated for Bulgaria's next Prime Minister on the grounds that a stable cabinet cannot be formed without either party's participation.
The exploratory mandate for government formation was first handed to the election-winning Socialist Party, who held coalition talks with SIINM. But the centrists' last-minute withdrawal doomed the Socialists to a failure in their effort to push through a minority-government plan.
Bulgaria's government-forming consultations initiated by the King's Party were postponed for Thursday.