President Radev hands over second exploratory mandate for Bulgaria government to opposition

The President of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, handed over his second exploratory mandate for forming a government to Nikolay Denkov, the Premier-Designate of We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria PP-DB.

As the President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, I am called to protect the Bulgarian state. I would like to state here that it is precisely because of this that it is inappropriate on my part to hand you a mandate and to entrust the fate of Bulgaria to the leaders of your party after the leaked recordings because of the planned purge in the services and the state administration and the plan to interfere in the elections, Radev said.

It is your constitutional right to use the cabinet-forming mandate, but for the sake of preserving the remnants of normality and trust in the political system and for preserving Bulgaria's image prior to our European partners, I call on you to reconsider the appropriateness of this mandate, which has already been discredited by President Radev.

Bulgaria needs a stable government to solve the people's problems and that will move Bulgaria's European path forward. Bulgaria also needs a stable parliament. Its most urgent task is to adopt the state budget, as on it depends salaries, pensions and capital expenditure, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov told President Radev. The parliament must complete several urgent tasks, such as the Anticorruption Law, the amendments to the Penal Code, including changes to road safety issues, he said. The negotiations with the other parliamentary forces will be held in the near future, Nikolay Denkov said. He added that our effort will be supported and that next week we will have a regular stable government.

GERB-SDS's Premier-Designate Mariya Gabriel returned to President Rumen Radev yesterday, the first cabinet-forming mandate for GERB-SDS. GERB-SDS and PP-DB reached agreement on a rotating prime minister for the second term. The MP from the Democratic Bulgaria coalition - We Continue the Change - published a scandalous recording of a meeting of We Continue the Change. GERB's negotiations with PP-DB were halted.