The Bulgarian Socialist Party, which holds 80 seats in the 240-seat parliament, filed the motion of no-confidence because of the government’s inability to cope with “the main problem facing the country”.

According to parliamentary rules, the motion must be discussed within one week and be supported by more than half of the legislators to be passed.

The current coalition government consists of the centre-right GERB party and the nationalist United Patriots that was elected in May.

Earlier this month the country’s president blocked anti-corruption legislation because he said it failed to provide effective measures to investigate corruption networks.

This came as Bulgaria took over the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first time since joining the bloc in 2007.