At 10 AM today, the most senior member of parliament Vezhdi Rashidov from the coalition GERB/SDS will ring the bell of the 49 National Assembly of Bulgaria. Without any great expectations that this parliament – the 5^th in the space of two years of political crisis - is going to last, the people elected to represent the nation will try to solve the conundrum of forming a government.

Unlike the situation after the snap election for parliament on 2 October last year, when President Rumen Radev convened the National Assembly on the 17^th day after the election and stretched out the consultations for the formation of a new cabinet, this time the president has decided to act more expeditiously. He announced he would schedule the first day of work of the new parliament as soon as the Central Election Commission announces the names of the new MPs, and urged the political parties to learn from their mistakes and do their best to find a sustainable formula for the formation of a regular cabinet.

A government of the political forces which identify as pro-European, or an amalgamation around the so-called paper coalition (GERB, Bulgarian Socialist Party and Movement for Rights and Freedoms) – that is the big post-election dilemma.

• Parliament votes in favour of paper-or-machine voting after 18 hours of arguments and quarrelling

However, more and more analysts are saying that we are looking at another slap election for parliament soon, as neither the winners GERB/SDS will be able to garner a sufficient number of votes in parliament for the formation of a cabinet, nor will the second biggest We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria be able to do so, or any of the smaller formations entering parliament. We Continue the Change- Democratic Bulgaria have already declared they will not support any form of government on a GERB mandate, whereas GERB on its part is hardly likely to run the risk of openly entering into an alliance with the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms with the local elections just months away.

• Bulgaria elected a parliament but the danger of another snap election still looms

Even if they fail to form a government, the MPs can still work to fulfil certain pressing goals. For a fourth month Bulgaria has been functioning on the extended budget for 2022, and there is a backlog of tasks such as the long-awaited judicial reform and the laws whose adoption is critical to this country’s receiving funding under the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Inside the stately building of the National Assembly, the foundations of which were laid in 1884, along with the dreams of a free, European and prosperous Bulgaria just a few years after the country’s liberation, representatives of 6 political forces will now be taking their seats, sent there by the votes cast in the 2 April general election.

• The National Assembly building, the symbol of Bulgarian parliamentarianism

The biggest parliamentary group, that of GERB/SDS, consists of 69 members, We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria is represented by 64 MPs, Vazrazhdane – by 37, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – by 36, the Bulgarian Socialist Party – by 23, and There Is Such a People – by 11.

As in the previous parliament, 58 of the 240 MPs are women. The youngest member of parliament – Georgi Krastev from GERB is 24, the oldest – Vezhdi Rashidov, again from GERB, is 72. Ramadan Atalay from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms is the longest-sitting member of parliament, with 12 whole terms in the National Assembly. There are two former prime ministers sitting in parliament – Boyko Borissov and Kiril Petkov, and besides some traditional professions like lawyers, economists and doctors, two poets, two former wrestlers and weightlifters and a wedding planner will lend colour to the new National Assembly.

Right after the official oath ceremony, the members of parliament will have to elect a president of the National Assembly, and begin discussing and approving laws. Meanwhile, President Radev has the obligation, under the Constitution, of holding consultations with the political forces represented in parliament before handing the first mandate for the formation of a cabinet. And if all three mandates envisaged fail, then the usual will follow – he will appoint one more caretaker government in anticipation of the next snap election.

Translated from the Bulgarian and posted by Milena Daynova