On Friday Bulgaria’s President Rossen Plevneliev is to hand in the first exploratory mandate for establishment of a new cabinet within the current National Assembly to GERB party. According to previous announcements of GERB members, that party will probably return the exploratory mandate to Bulgaria’s head of state. In that case, President Plevneliev will hand in the mandate to the second-biggest political party-the Bulgarian Socialist Party. If BSP also refuses to accept the mandate, the exploratory mandate will be given to a third political party represented at the National Assembly. If that party also refuses to form a cabinet, the newly-elected President Rumen Radev will have to dissolve the country’s Parliament and appoint early Parliamentary elections when he assumes office at the end of January 2017.