President Rumen Radev today begins consultations with representatives of the parliamentary groups in the 51st National Assembly, the press secretariat of the head of state announced. From 10:00 a.m. he will talk with GERB-SDS, and from 11:30 a.m. – with "We continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria".
This phase was reached after Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov announced the resignation of the government last week after another large-scale protest. This happened immediately before the parliament voted a sixth vote of no confidence in the cabinet due to failures in economic policy. A day later, the National Assembly unanimously accepted the Prime Minister's resignation.
According to the Constitution, after the cabinet resigns, the president is obliged to start a new procedure for awarding exploratory mandates for the formation of a government within the current National Assembly. The Basic Law provides that after the consultations, the head of state assigns the formation of a cabinet to a candidate for prime minister, proposed by the largest parliamentary group. If the candidate does not present the composition of the Council of Ministers within seven days, the president assigns the mandate to a candidate nominated by the second largest parliamentary group. If a cabinet is not proposed then, within a new seven-day period, the head of state grants an exploratory mandate to the next parliamentary group of his choice.
Upon successful fulfillment of an exploratory mandate, the president proposes to the National Assembly to elect the candidate for prime minister and the composition of the Council of Ministers. If political agreement for a regular government is not reached, the president, after new consultations with the parliamentary groups and at the suggestion of a candidate for caretaker prime minister, appoints a caretaker government and sets early elections within two months.
Positions of the political forces
GERB leader Boyko Borisov said on Thursday that the ruling formation will no longer consider and submit a budget. According to him, no new corrections are planned after the upcoming elections: "In my opinion, the correction has already been made, in another monastery," Borisov commented. He added that "after today we will be a strong opposition, we will try to win the elections".
From "We continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria" they defined the resignation of the cabinet as "a victory for Bulgaria", and the next stage, according to them, is "fair and free elections". According to the formation, it was civic pressure and mass protests that led to this political development.
The chairman of "Vazrazhdane" Kostadin Kostadinov called for the procedure for awarding the first, second and third mandates for forming a government to be advanced quickly so that elections can be organized – "either at the end of winter, or at the beginning of spring". According to him, society expects it to become clear quickly whether there will be a regular cabinet or the country is going to a new vote.
In the current political situation, "all the responsibility is on the Soros coalition, I mean PP-DB", said the leader of DPS-The New Beginning Delyan Peevski. According to him, "the winner is someone else and let him come today", as he insisted on the quick election of a new government.
"BSP – United Left" announced that it supports the adoption of the 2026 budget and the protection of citizens' social rights. The left formation insists that key social policies should not become hostage to the political crisis and the expected elections.
According to Toshko Yordanov from "There is such a people", after there will be no regular government, "the responsibility from now on is not on any of the three parties that participated in power". He emphasized that it was these formations that carried the management mandate until now, but with the resignation of the cabinet, political responsibility is redistributed.
"Let everyone take their responsibility for the future, because the people in the squares were not there for a few days, they will be watching us constantly," said Hayri Sadakov from Alliance for Rights and Freedoms. He emphasized that public discontent will not subside quickly and citizens expect real change, not just a change of cabinets.
The formation "Morality, Unity, Honor" stated that people expect elections from which a clear parliamentary majority will emerge. They emphasized that the new configuration should at least leave Delyan Peevski and Boyko Borisov out of government.
The parliamentary group of announced that "the end of the illegitimate government is the beginning of a struggle for creation". The formation pointed out that a long process of restoring confidence in the institutions and building a new model of governance is ahead.