Former Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said on Friday that the country will hold a snap election after political parties failed to form a government following the resignation of the previous administration amid widespread protests.

Radev confirmed the decision after offering the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms a final mandate to try to form a cabinet. The party declined, becoming the third political group this week to reject the opportunity, leaving no viable path to a governing majority in parliament.

“We are going to elections,” Radev said.

The move will trigger Bulgaria’s eighth parliamentary election in four years, underscoring prolonged political instability in the European Union’s poorest member state.

Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov’s coalition, backed by the largest parliamentary group GERB-SDS, resigned last month after weeks of street protests against entrenched corruption and a controversial budget that proposed tax increases. His resignation came just days before Bulgaria officially joined the euro zone on 1 January.

Under Bulgaria’s constitution, the president must offer mandates in sequence to parliamentary groups to attempt to form a government. GERB-SDS and the reformist PP-DB alliance both rejected Radev’s earlier offers, citing a lack of support in the fragmented legislature.

No party holds enough seats to assemble a stable majority, forcing the president to appoint a caretaker government and set a date for new elections.

• Bulgaria celebrates joining the euro
• Bulgarians protest against outgoing government over corruption

Analysts warn that continued political deadlock could delay reforms, slow the absorption of European Union funds, deter foreign investment and hinder efforts to tackle systemic corruption, despite Bulgaria’s recent entry into the euro zone.

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