site.btaPresident Radev to Mandate Alliance for Rights and Freedoms to Name Prime Minister-Designate

On January 16, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev will mandate the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) Parliamentary Group to nominate a prime minister-designate, the head of State's Press Secretariat said here on Thursday.

Under the Constitution, after a cabinet resigns, the President must begin a new procedure of handing exploratory mandates to form a government. After consultations, the President tasks a prime minister-designate nominated by the largest parliamentary group with forming a cabinet. If within seven days the nominee fails to propose a Council of Ministers, the President mandates a designee of the second largest parliamentary group. If no government is proposed in that case, either, again within one week, the President asks another parliamentary group of his choice to name a prime minister-designate.

If this third and last cabinet forming mandate fails as well, the President consults the parliamentary groups and appoints a caretaker government and schedules new parliamentary elections within two months.

After Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov tendered his cabinet's resignation on December 11, 2025, President Rumen Radev launched the constitutional government-formation procedure by holding consultations with the parliamentary groups in the 51st National Assembly between 15 and 19 December, announcing at the end of the talks that he would hand the first exploratory mandate after the New Year. GERB-UDF returned the first mandate immediately after receiving it on Monday, and Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria returned the second mandate unfulfilled on Wednesday.