Slavi Trifonov, the leader of Bulgaria’s There Are Such People (ITN) – the party that won most of the votes in the July 11 general election – said his party is giving up its proposal for a government and accused the other anti-establishment parties of treason and hypocrisy after their refusal to back his party's nomination for prime minister.

ITN has repeatedly said it would only form a government if supported by the other two newcomer in parliament – the reformist Democratic Bulgaria and Stand Up.BG! We Are Coming! (ISBG). However, ITN refused to form a coalition with them and held expert talks only to compare priorities with the two formations and with the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

Moreover, ITN’s behaviour is seen as rather arrogant by fellow politicians, and the party has refused to sign a document guaranteeing that the agreed reforms would be implemented and that former ruling party Gerb and the ethnic-Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) would not have any influence on the government. Instead of agreeing to the documents, ITN accused Democratic Bulgaria and ISBG of treason.

On August 9 ISBG said it would not support the government proposed by ITN. Democratic Bulgaria did the same on August 10.

In a statement made live on his 7/8 TV and broadcasted by Trifonov on Facebook, he said the decision of the two formations means that “the protest against Gerb and all done by Gerb was left in the past, while in the present and in the current parliament there are political ambitions, all sorts of ambitions, hypocrisy, lies, betrayal and games”.

Trifonov said this was unacceptable for him and his colleagues.

“Tomorrow [on August 11] we shall not propose a project for a government for [MPs to] vote on at all because we have clearly stated that without the support of these parties – I mean the parties of the protests – we shall not propose a government,” Trifonov said.

He added that this means the country is heading for new early vote, because his party will not participate in talks on a government with any other political party given a mandate by the president.

By law, President Rumen Radev is obliged to give a mandate to the second-largest political party in parliament if the first one fails to form a government. However, that is Gerb, which has said it would not even try to form a cabinet and will return the mandate immediately. Radev is then obliged to give a third mandate to any of the other political parties in parliament. If this attempt also fails, a snap election should be called.

Shortly after Trifonov’s statement, experts said that the vote on the proposed government cannot be stopped as Radev’s decree proposing to parliament to appoint Plamen Nikolov, the candidate put forward by ITN for prime minister, was published in the state gazette on August 10.

To exit the situation, Nikolov filed a letter to parliament saying that he no longer wants to become prime minister and will not propose a government, which allowed the parliament to call off the vote on August 11.

When announcing the decision of the formation not to back the nomination for government of ITN, Hristo Ivanov, one of the leaders of Democratic Bulgaria, said that this was the weakest proposal for a government ever and that his formation cannot back it due to the lack of guarantees that any reforms would be implemented by an ITN-led government.

“We are obliged to do this. Our call on everyone is: let’s be constructive! Let’s make a step back. To be humble. Let’s give people a ruling that would not leave a taste of humiliation and replacement, a dictate,” Ivanov said.

Ivanov said that Democratic Bulgaria is open to negotiations on another government, but that the formation would not back a mandate for the DPS, Gerb or BSP. This leaves only one chance – if Radev picks ISBG for the third mandate.

ISBG has also said that cannot back ITN's nomination for a government for the same reasons as Democratic Bulgaria. It also indicated that it would back a proposal of from political party to vote for transforming the current caretaker government of Prime Minister Stefan Yanev into a regular one. This government has the approval of around 50% of the population due to its decisive actions to reveal corruption, misuse of funds and abuse of office by the previous government of Gerb’s leader Boyko Borissov. The government has also taken steps to increase budget revenue, stop corrupt schemes and prepare the country for a new wave of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic expected by September.

Trifonov’s statement was accepted with rather negative reactions.

“The angry child grumbled that he was not allowed to play with the buckets and shovels the way he wanted to. And he flinched. He has never realised that this was a team game. And if for a child such a behaviour is understandable, for an adult man who wants to rule an entire country, it is ridiculous. And it is a pity. And selfish. And only demonstrates the inner demons of a proto-rapist,” prominent PR expert Lubomir Alamanov wrote on Facebook.

He added that the most pathetic part was Trifonov’s attempt to attach himself to Radev. ITN’s leader said in the same statement that his party will back Radev’s candidacy for second term in the autumn presidential election. The president has not asked any specific party to back his candidacy but is widely expected to win as his rating remained high during his whole first term.