site.btaPresident Says Snap Elections Will Be Held after Third Mandate to Form Regular Cabinet Fails

President Rumen Radev said Bulgaria is headed for snap parliamentary elections after the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) received and returned the third mandate to form a government on Friday.

ARF Floor Leader Hayri Sadakov was designated to receive the mandate, which he returned immediately.

Radev said it was no coincidence that he chose to hand the last mandate to ARF, the third smallest of nine parliamentary groups. He said the formation had been subjected to "brutal pressure from its own political offspring", apparently referring to MRF-New Beginning led by Delyan Peevski.

Radev added: "You, probably more than anyone else, are aware of the flaws of today's governance model." Many ARF members and supporters had been subjected to pressure and that even now they continue to face various forms of influence that are unacceptable in a state governed by the rule of law, he said.

Radev said he mandated ARF as a symbol of national unity and as a stand against any attempt by self-serving politicians to stir interethnic tension, for which there is no ground whatsoever in Bulgaria and which serves only their narrow partisan and, above all, personal interests.

The first and second mandates were returned promptly earlier this week. The largest parliamentary group, GERB-UDF, returned the first mandate immediately after receiving it on Monday, and the second largest, Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, returned the mandate on Wednesday. In line with the Constitution, the President then asked a parliamentary group of his choice to name a prime minister-designate. When the third cabinet-forming mandate fails as well, the President consults the parliamentary groups, appoints a caretaker government and schedules parliamentary elections within two months.

The President launched the constitutional government-formation procedure after Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov tendered his Cabinet's resignation on December 11, 2025, in the wake of mass protests against the 2026 budget bill and corruption.

Background

The Alliance for Rights and Freedoms emerged in 2024 following an internal rift within Bulgaria's long-established Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), a party traditionally representing Bulgaria's ethnic Turks and Muslims, among others. The split was triggered by a power struggle between MRF's honorary chairman Ahmed Dogan and the party's co-chair Delyan Peevski, whose growing influence sparked resistance among long-time party figures and regional structures loyal to Dogan. As tensions escalated into claims over party leadership and direction, MPs and officials loyal to Dogan broke away to form the ARF.