Bulgaria's GERB party urges lawmakers to create a government after inconclusive vote

Boyko Borissov, former long-serving premier and leader of the centre-right GERB party, gives a news briefing after winning Sunday's snap polls, in Sofia, Bulgaria April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Spasiyana Sergieva

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's centre-right GERB party, which came first in an election last Sunday, urged the country's political parties to put a new government in place "whatever the cost" following the fifth inconclusive poll in two years.

Bulgaria faces lengthy government-building talks or the prospect of another vote, prolonging political instability in the European Union member state that has been fuelled by distrust between the pro-Western reformist party PP, which came second, and GERB, the party of former prime minister Boyko Borissov.