Bulgaria president dissolves parliament

SOFIA: Bulgaria’s president dissolved parliament on Tuesday and called a new general election for July 11, after a vote last month failed to produce a government coalition.

Long-time conservative premier Boyko Borisov’s party came first in the April 4 poll, but in a badly fragmented legislature it failed to find partners to govern. It was the first time in the Balkan country’s post-communist history that no parties were able to reach a compromise to form a cabinet.

Borisov’s GERB party scored 27 percent of the vote last month, giving it 75 seats in the 240-seat legislature. The election followed massive anti-government protests last year that accused Borisov, who has ruled the EU member state virtually uninterrupted for almost a decade, of favouring and protecting oligarchs. The new anti-establishment party founded by showman-turned-politician Slavi Trifonov was second, while the main opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party came third.