Bulgarian ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) has expectedly rejected the mandate to form an interim Cabinet received by President Rosen Plevneliev.

DPS has thus become the third – and last – parliamentary group to receive and reject the mandate.

As the Bulgarian Constitution requires, Plevneliev first offered the mandate to the largest party in Parliament, the center-right GERB, and then to the second largest one – the left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party.

Both refused to form a Cabinet.

The President now has to appoint a caretaker government, and, with one single decree, adjourn the Parliament and schedule a new general election.

The caretaker government's term will be up to two months, with its main task being the organization of snap elections.

Last week, Plevneliev announced that the snap elections will be held on May 12.

On February 21, Bulgaria's Parliament approved the resignation of the government of the Prime Minister and his ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, amidst unprecedented since 1997 protest rallies against unbearable utility bills, monopolies and wide-spread poverty that turned into a civil unrest against the political model of ruling the country.