Bulgarian president calls snap vote on June 9, appoints caretaker govt

The snap vote will take place simultaneously with elections for Bulgarian members of the European Parliament, the president's office said in a statement.

The head of state had to appoint a caretaker cabinet and call early elections after the collapse of the power sharing deal between the two biggest factions in parliament - GERB-UDF and WCC-DB and the ensuing failure of political factions in the National Assembly to put together a new government. Under the constitution, the caretaker government is in charge of organising the early vote.

In the newly formed caretaker government, Lyudmila Petkova, director of the tax policy directorate at the finance ministry, has replaced Assen Vassilev as minister of finance, while Petko Nikolov will serve as minister of economy and industry, succeeding Bogdan Bogdanov in the post.

Kiril Vatev, Georgi Gvozdeykov, Galin Tsokov and Kalin Stoyanov, who served as ministers of agriculture, transport, education and internal affairs, respectively, will remain in their positions.

The caretaker cabinet took the oath of office in parliament on Tuesday morning, as seen in a video published by public television BNT.