SOFIA, Bulgaria

Bulgaria is on course for early elections this autumn after the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) failed to form a government in what was the third and final attempt to resolve an ongoing political crisis.

Georgi Svilenski, parliamentary group leader for the BSP, said the party will inform President Rumen Radev on Thursday, who is expected to dissolve parliament and set a date for the polls, most likely in October.

The elections will be the fourth in two years for Bulgaria, which has been marred by political instability since Prime Minister Kiril Petkov’s government was toppled in a no-confidence vote last month.

Svilenski’s announcement came after a parliament vote on a governance plan drawn up by the BSP, Petkov’s We Continue the Change (WCC) and Democratic Bulgaria was shelved.

The vote was opposed by the coalition of the former ruling party GERB and the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), along with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, There Is Such a People (ITN) and Vuzrazhdane.

Radev tasked the BSP with forming a government last week, following a failed attempt by the WCC earlier this month and the GERB-UDF coalition’s refusal after it was handed the mandate on July 14.