SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria's president on Friday handed a mandate to the third-largest political party in parliament to form a government following the failure of two previous attempts.

Despite the vague chances of the Socialist Party's success, leader Kornelia Ninova, said her party would invite three groups that emerged from anti-corruption protests last year to discuss creating a viable coalition government.

Unlike with the previous two mandates, which were given to the prime minister-designates of the anti-establishment There is Such a People and former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB party, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev asked the Socialists' parliamentary group to engage in coalition talks.

“We won’t set any preconditions, nor will we come up with preliminary nominations for prime minister and ministers. We will be looking for consensus on these issues,” Ninova said.

But political analysts said her words sounded more like wishful thinking since two of the three groups have already ruled out any talks on forming a government with the Socialists.

If the coalition talks fail, which analysts say is more than likely, the president must dissolve parliament, appoint a caretaker government and schedule another early parliamentary election, the third this year. The vote would likely be held together with a regularly scheduled presidential election in November.