Bulgaria Nears New Elections After PM Candidate Returns Mandate
Jerusalem, 13 January, 2026 (TPS-IL) -- Sofia (BTA) – Bulgarian President Rumen Radev will formally hand over a mandate to form a government on Wednesday morning to the candidate for Prime Minister, nominated by “We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria,” the second-largest parlianmentary group in the National Assembly. This was announced by the press secretariat of the head of state.
“A new government in this National Assembly is impossible and highly undesirable,” said “We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria” during consultations with the head of state before the handing over of the exploratory mandate for forming a government.
On Monday, outgoing Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov returned the unfulfilled first exploratory mandate for forming a government as a candidate for prime minister of GERB-SDF, immediately after he received it.
At the end of 2025, the president held consultations with parliamentary groups after the government with Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov resigned. At that time, Radev said that he would hand over the first mandate after the New Year.
According to the Constitution, after the resignation of the cabinet, the president must start a new procedure for issuing exploratory mandates to form a government. According to the Basic Law, after consultations, the president assigns a candidate for prime minister, nominated by the largest parliamentary group, to form a government. If the candidate fails to propose a composition of the Council of Ministers within seven days, the president assigns this to a candidate for prime minister nominated by the second largest parliamentary group.
If in this case, too, no composition of the government is proposed, again within one week, the president assigns a subsequent parliamentary group to nominate a candidate for prime minister.
If no agreement is reached on a government, the President, after consultations with the parliamentary groups and upon the proposal of the candidate for caretaker Prime Minister, appoints a caretaker government and schedules new elections within two months.
The possible parliamentary elections would be the eighth since 2021.
“We believe that March 29 is a good date for holding the elections,” said Rosen Zhelyazkov yesterday, after returning the unfulfilled mandate for the cabinet.
