Bulgarian president begins consultations with potential caretaker prime ministers amid ongoing political crisis

​​​​​​​By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Bulgarian President Rumen Radev began consultations with potential caretaker prime ministers amid an ongoing political crisis, media reports said Thursday.

Radev first met Parliament Speaker Rosen Zhelyazkov, who emerged as the frontrunner candidate for the post, at the presidential palace in Sofia, according to the Sofia News Agency.

The president then met the Chairman of the Audit Chamber Dimitar Glavchev and the Gov. of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Dimitar Radev.

The Constitution states that if an agreement on a government has not been reached, the president, after consultations with parliamentary groups and on the proposal of the candidate for interim prime minister, will appoint an interim government and schedule new elections within two months.

The president can choose between the Speaker, the governor or deputy governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, the chairman or deputy chairman of the Audit Chamber and the ombudsman or his deputy.

But deputy ombudsman Elena Cherneva Markova has already resigned.

The incumbent Nikolay Denkov government was a majority coalition between GERB and CC-DB and has been in power since last June.

Last week, the planned government rotation between coalition partners and the signing of a renewed government manifest for the next nine months failed.

On March 26, the conservative GERB-UDF party rejected a final offer from the centrist Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) party, a former power-sharing partner, to form a government.

GERB's refusal of the deal paved the way for early national elections, the country's sixth since April 2021.