A third and final attempt to form a government has failed in Bulgaria.

The small populist ITN party, tasked with forming a new government by President Rumen Radev a week ago, returned its mandate on Monday.

In talks with other parties, it was unable to convince 121 of the 240 lawmakers required to support the formation of a government.

There will now have to be another election in the EU country in the autumn.

This would be the seventh parliamentary election there since April 2020.

“The spiral of elections without success continues to churn,’’ complained head of state Radev.

“He must now set an election date and appoint an interim head of government from a narrow circle of senior officials. This person will then put together an interim cabinet.’’

After the early parliamentary elections on June 9, the candidate nominated by the pro-Western centre-right election winner Gerb-SDS for the office of Prime Minister, Rossen Zhelyaskov, could not secure a majority in the parliamentary vote.

The pro-Western liberal-conservative PP-DB alliance also returned the mandate it had received from Radev, just as ITN has now done.

According to a recent opinion poll by the Bulgarian Market Links Institute, another new election, probably in October, is unlikely to significantly change the current situation in the fragmented parliament.

Voter turnout could also be similarly low as in the most recent election on June 9. 

(dpa/NAN)