site.btaPresident Iotova to Meet with Central Bank Governor, His Deputies as Part of Procedure to Appoint Caretaker Cabinet

President Iliana Iotova will meet with the Governor and Deputy Governors of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) on Wednesday, as part of the constitutional procedure for appointing a caretaker government.

Iotova will first hold talks with BNB Governor Dimitar Radev and then meet with his deputies, Petar Chobanov, Radoslav Milenkov, and Andrey Gurov. 

On Thursday, the President will receive Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva and Deputy Ombudsman Maria Filipova. On Friday, Iotova will meet with Bulgarian National Audit Office (BNAO) President Dimitar Glavchev and BNAO Vice Presidents Margarita Nikolova and Silvia Kadreva.

Under Article 99, paragraph 5 of the Constitution, after failure to reach agreement on forming a government, the President, following consultations with the parliamentary groups and on the proposal of the candidate for caretaker prime minister, appoints a caretaker government and schedules new parliamentary elections within two months.

The pool of potential caretaker prime ministers from which the President may choose is limited to the Chairperson of the National Assembly (Raya Nazaryan), the Governor or Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (Dimitar Radev, Petar Chobanov, Andrey Gurov and Radoslav Milenkov), the President or a Vice President of the National Audit Office (Dimitar Glavchev, Margarita Nikolova and Silvia Kadreva) and the National Ombudsman (Velislava Delcheva) or the Deputy Ombudsman (Maria Filipova).

In late 2025, then-President Rumen Radev held consultations with parliamentary groups following the resignation of the Rosen Zhelyazkov Cabinet. On January 16, Radev said Bulgaria was heading toward snap parliamentary elections after the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms received and returned the third mandate to form a government. Earlier, the first two exploratory mandates - handed to GERB-UDF and Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria - had also been returned.