Bulgaria: Centrist party leader asked to form government

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria’s president has given a mandate to form a new government to the prime minister-designate of a centrist party that promised to fight corruption and carry out legal reforms. The leader of the newly formed We Continue the Change party, Kiril Petkov, accepted the task on Saturday. Petkov has signed a reform-oriented coalition agreement with three other left-wing and center-right groups that won seats in Bulgaria’s parliamentary election last month. President Rumen Radev urged the next government to focus on reforms in the judiciary, arguing that “the battle for the rule of law will be decisive for all other battles.”