Sofia, May (dpa) – Former Bulgarian EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel has been tasked with forming a government in her home country, a month and a half after an inconclusive general election.
The 43-year-old, who served as EU commissioner for research, innovation and education before resigning from her EU duties on Monday, has received the first of three possible mandates to govern from Bulgarian head of state Rumen Radev.
“I will do everything possible to ensure that Bulgaria has a stable, functioning government,” Gabriel said at the beginning of a meeting with Radev in Sofia.
Gabriel was nominated as prime minister by the centre-right GERB-SDS alliance to break the political deadlock in Sofia.
In the European Parliament, GERB-SDS belongs to the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP).
Gabriel said she wanted to propose a technocrat government with “clear priorities” that would have one goal, “the well-being of Bulgarians and the prestige of Bulgaria.”
The south-eastern EU country faces numerous challenges including high inflation, corruption, delayed judicial reform and blocked accession to the visa-free Schengen area.
President Radev gave Gabriel “until next Monday” to propose a government. It is to replace the current transitional cabinet, which Radev appointed following the fifth parliamentary elections in Bulgaria in just two years.
The president warned Gabriel of “quite a lot of obstacles on this path.”
GERB-SDS’s main political rival – the pro-Western PP-DB, which came second in the parliamentary election on April 2 – said it would not support a GERB-SDS government, blaming their opponents for the corruption in the country.
A total of six political blocs are represented in the parliament in Sofia.
GNA