Bulgaria is heading towards a constitutional crisis and paralysed political processes as the parliament has been unable to elect a speaker since November 11 and no working compromise seems possible.

On November 20, a fourth attempt to elect a speaker failed. A fifth one will follow on November 22 but currently there are little chances of success.

If, as expected, the fifth attempt also fails, it is not clear what will happen next. According to the latest constitutional changes, if the country heads for its eighth general election in the last three and a half years, the parliament should continue its work until the start of the campaign. However, without a speaker lawmakers cannot hold any sessions, nor they can set up working bodies.

After the October 27 snap general election, Gerb, led by former prime minister Boyko Borissov, won 69 out of 240 seats in parliament. Since then, the party’s leader has been insisting on the appointment of a speaker from Gerb, making that a key condition for forming a ruling coalition and urging the second-largest grouping in parliament, Change Continues-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) to back its nomination.

CC-DB had its own candidate and is refusing to back Gerb’s candidate Raya Nazaryan, who headed the previous parliament, saying she is closely connected to Magnitsky-sanctioned Delyan Peevski. The coalition also demands that Gerb sign a declaration it will not work together with Peevski’s DPS – New Beginning and will adopt a set of reforms within a specific timeframe as key condition for any coalition talks and joint actions in parliament.

Borissov has signed a letter saying that he will not enter in coalition with either of the two factions formed by the breakup of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) – Peevski’s party and that led by the party’s chairman of honour, Ahmed Dogan. However, he is refusing to sign a document setting out reforms or to personally meet with CC-DB’s leaders for talks.

That gave CC-DB a reason to refuse to back Gerb’s nomination. In an attempt to unblock the process, the formation pulled out its candidate and called on all political formations to do the same and to elect the eldest MP as technical speaker, Silvi Kirilov from populist There Are Such People (ITN). However, DB’s MPs also decided they would not work together with far-right pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party.

The proposal was not accepted and on November 20 Kirilov failed to gain enough support.

Meanwhile, President Rumen Radev challenged several constitutional changes, which, if scrapped by the constitutional court, would unblock the process if parliament fails to start work and new snap vote has to be scheduled.