THE Bulgarian President, Mr Zhelio Zhelev, said late last night after a day of rioting in Sofia that he would not be asking rulings Socialist Party candidate Mr Nikolai Dobrev to form a new government today.
Mr Zhelev said the situation was "out of control" after up to 500 demonstrators forced their way into the parliament building earlier in the day and police fought them back with tear gas and water, resulting in at least 34 injuries.
Some 50,000 people had massed outside parliament, blowing whistles and burning red flags and effigies representing the ruling Socialist Party, which is in the midst of an economic crisis and a leadership upheaval.
All windows were smashed on the ground floor of the building, a Renaissance-style landmark in the centre of Sofia.
Since the government of Mr Zhan Videnov resigned on December 28th following widespread criticism of its economic policies, demonstrators have been gathering daily to demand early elections and vent their opposition to moves to install another government led by the former communists.
Some 5,000 people were still gathered outside parliament at midnight last night, preventing the Socialist deputies from leaving.
Earlier, opposition deputies walked out of the besieged parliament, saying they wanted to protect demonstrators outside.
"We are leaving this parliament and we are walking out physically because the risk for you outside the parliament is greater than for those inside," the leader of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), Mr Ivan Kostov told the demonstrators.
We are here as a guarantee for your safety," he added.
The UDF deputies walked out after failing to reach agreement with the ex-communist ruling party on a declaration calling for early elections.
Parliamentary approval of the motion was a key demand of the demonstrators.
Under the constitution, the President has to ask the candidate of the biggest parliamentary grouping to form a government, but no timescale is stipulated.
Mr Zhelev, who returned from a private visit to Paris yesterday evening, immediately called an emergency meeting of the national security council.
The President, whose term of office expires on January 22nd, blamed the Socialist Party for the current crisis and expressed solidarity with the demonstrators, while warning against "violence and destruction" which he said do not serve democracy."
President-elect Mr Petar Stoyanov, a right-winger, who arrived at the parliament building late yesterday afternoon, called on the Socialist Party to quit immediately and said it should "apologise before the people".
Meanwhile a former prime minister and member of parliament of the main opposition party, Mr Filip Dmitrov, appealed to the international community to understand what was happening in Bulgaria.
International financial bodies should realise there was no place for a communist government in Sofia, Mr Dmitrov, of the UDF, said.