Power sharing government agreed in Bulgaria

After five elections in two years, Bulgarian parties on Monday agreed to form a power sharing government with rotating prime ministers to implement badly needed reforms in the nation.

Former EU commissioner for innovation Mariya Gabriel, tasked by the conservative GERB party to lead negotiations, announced the agreement with the anti-graft We Continue the Change (PP).

"We all made a lot of concessions," Gabriel told a news conference in the capital Sofia.

The 44-year-old ex-commissioner, who resigned from her post in Brussels last week, will initially be deputy prime minister, under the leadership of 60-year-old researcher Nikolay Denkov of the PP-DB coalition.

Denkov and Gabriel will rotate as prime ministers for a period of nine months each.

"We sought a solution to avoid the real danger of new elections," Denkov said Monday.

Analysts cautiously welcomed Monday's announcement, with polling institute Trend's Evelina Slavkova calling it a "step in the right direction... towards a government of salvation, almost."

The European Union's poorest country has been plagued by political instability and led by caretaker governments in the past two years.

A fifth vote in early April did not provide clear majorities either.

GERB won 69 MP seats in the 240-seat legislature and has remained badly isolated, with their main rivals PP-DB getting 64 MP seats.

Four smaller parties also secured seats. Bulgaria has never had a rotating premiership but the compromise remained the only option for a cabinet after Gabriel failed to secure backing from two out of three smaller parties for a cabinet of GERB led by herself as prime minister.