SOFIA, Jan 16 (Reuters) - President Rumen Radev said on Friday Bulgaria will hold a snap election after leading parties refused a mandate to form a government following the previous administration's resignationamid widespread protests.
Radev on Friday offered the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms the last chance to try to form a government but it declined the request, the third to do so this week, setting the stage for snap elections, the eighth in the past four years.
None of the parties in question command enough seats in a fragmented parliament to put together a stable majority.
"We are going to elections," Radev said.
Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov's coalition, backed by the biggest parliamentary group GERB-SDS, resigned last month after weeks of street protests against endemic state corruption and a new budget that would have increased some taxes.
His exit, which came shortly before Bulgaria joined the euro zone on January 1, triggered a constitutional process which saw both GERB-SDS and the reformist PP-DB rejecting Radev's offer to set up a ruling coalition this week.
With the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms also declining his offer on Friday, Radev will now have to appoint a caretaker cabinet and set a date for snap elections.
Bulgaria, the poorest member of the European Union, sorely needs political stability to speed up the intake of EU funds into its creaking infrastructure, to encourage foreign investment and root out systemic corruption.
(Reporting by Stoyan Nenov; writing by Edward McAllister and Angeliki Koutantou; editing by Alison Williams and Mark Heinrich)
