SOFIA, Bulgaria – Bulgaria's parliament has formally approved the country's new center-right government.
Lawmakers on Friday voted 149-85 to elect 55-year-old Boyko Borisov as the new prime minister.
In a separate vote, legislators also approved the Cabinet — a 16-member minority coalition between Borisov's center-right GERB party and the right-wing Reformist bloc. It will be supported in parliament by the nationalist Patriotic Front and the left-wing ABV party.
The former Sofia mayor, whose GERB party won an Oct. 5 election, was prime minister between 2009 and February 2013, when he stepped down amid nationwide social protests that have turned violent.
Analysts predict a hard time for the new Cabinet, which faces the challenges of pushing through crucial legal reforms, reviving the slow economy and unfreezing blocked EU funds.