site.btaPresident Iotova to Meet National Audit Office Leadership on Caretaker Government Procedure

President Iliana Iotova will meet with Bulgarian National Audit Office (BNAO) Chair Dimitar Glavchev and deputy chairs Margarita Nikolova and Silvia Kadreva at the President’s administration in Sofia on Friday in connection with the constitutional procedure for appointing a caretaker government.

The meetings are scheduled separately and will be closed to the media.

On Thursday, Iotova met Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva and Deputy Ombudsman Maria Filipova. Filipova said she would accept being caretaker prime minister if Iotova decided so. Earlier, after her meeting with Iotova, Delcheva said the ombudsman had no place in the executive branch.

On Wednesday, Iotova held meetings with the governor and deputy governors of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) in connection with appointing a caretaker government. After meeting Iotova, BNB Deputy Governor Andrey Gurov said he was ready to become caretaker prime minister. BNB Governor Dimitar Radev and Deputy Governors Petar Chobanov and Radoslav Milenkov told journalists they would not accept the caretaker prime minister post.

On Tuesday, Iotova also had a meeting with National Assembly Chair Raya Nazaryan, who also turned down the caretaker prime minister post.

Under Article 99(5) of the Constitution, after no agreement is reached to form a government, the President, after consultations with the parliamentary groups and on a proposal by the candidate for caretaker PM, appoints a caretaker government and schedules new elections within two months.

The President may appoint an interim Prime Minister from among the following office-holders: Nazaryan; Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Governor Radev, or one of the BNB Deputy Governors: Gurov, Chobanov, or Milenkov; Glavchev, or one of the deputy chairs of the Bulgarian National Audit Office (BNAO): Nikolova or Kadreva; ombudsman Delcheva, or her deputy, Filipova.

Iotova is expected to hold meetings and talks with them and then name the caretaker PM.

After Zhelyazkov resigned on December 11, 2025, then-President Rumen Radev held constitutional consultations with the parliamentary groups in the 51st National Assembly between December 15 and 19, 2025, with parties largely signaling that the legislature could not produce a new regular cabinet and that early elections were needed. The government-formation procedure then ran its course, as GERB-UDF, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) all returned their exploratory mandates by January 16, 2026, which put snap elections and a caretaker cabinet on the immediate horizon.

Since January 23, 2026, Bulgaria has had a new president. Iotova, previously VP, took over after the Constitutional Court ruled that Radev’s mandate ended early because he resigned. Under the Constitution, when the head of State’s mandate ends early, the VP takes over as president until the end of the term. In the following days, Iotova opened the constitutional procedure to appoint a caretaker PM and caretaker government, starting consultations with the eligible office-holders.