SOFIA: Bulgaria’s parliament approved on Thursday a cabinet led by Rosen Zhelyazkov, a former parliament speaker, ending months of negotiations on the formation of a coalition government.
The centre-right GERB party won a snap election in October, the seventh held in the Balkan state in four years, but has had to hold tough talks with other political parties for more than two months in order to form a government.
Zhelyazkov, proposed as PM-designate by the largest parliamentary GERB-SDS group, received a mandate from President Rumen Radev on Wednesday to form a government.
Some 125 lawmakers at the 240-seat legislature approved Zhelyazkov’s proposed cabinet in a vote on Thursday, opening the way for a new government to take office.
Bulgaria, the poorest member of the European Union and one of its most corrupt states, has been plagued by revolving-door governments since anti-graft protests in 2020 unseated a GERB coalition.
