SOFIA: Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said Friday he hoped to restore stability to the EU's poorest country as his new centre-right minority government, the third in less than two years, won parliamentary approval.
Borisov, 55, whose GERB party came first in elections last month but was left well short of a majority, said his newly formed cabinet would be "pro-European and reformist, working for a stable Bulgaria".
Former bodyguard, firefighter and police chief Borisov, 55, was prime minister between 2009 and February 2013 when he stepped down during mass nationwide protests about poverty and corruption.
The subsequent technocrat government backed by the Socialists and the Turkish minority party lasted barely a year, resigning this July and precipitating yet more elections in October.
On Thursday Borisov signed a coalition agreement with the Reformist Bloc party, giving the government only 107 seats in the 240-seat parliament, but it can also rely on support from two other parties.
Analysts predict tough days ahead for the new cabinet, with instability and protests likely over the coming winter.
This week already, two people set themselves on fire in public places, their motives unknown but echoing a series of such incidents last year when eight people died.
Some of the major challenges are reviving the sluggish economy, revising this year's budget and paying out guaranteed deposits to depositors of fourth-largest lender Corporate Commercial Bank pending its insolvency.
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