Bulgaria’s Long Stalemate Ends as Opposing Leaders Agree Cabinet

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev (R) receives a vacant mandate from Mariya Gabriel, the GERB-SDS party's candidate for Prime Minister, on 22 May 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

For the first nine months, Bulgaria will be led by former Education Minister Nickolay Denkov of "We Continue the Change", while the next nine months will be under the governance of former EU commissioner Mariya Gabriel, now the fresh face of GERB. 

Both major parties made the important symbolic move of not nominating their de facto leaders - Boyko Borissov for GERB, and Kiril Petkov for WCC, as potential prime ministers. 

On Monday, after GERB returned its mandate to form a government unfulfilled, the next mandate was to be handed to WCC and Democratic Bulgaria.

However, a Denkov-Gabriel cabinet will have an easy majority of 135 MPs in Bulgaria's 240-seat parliament. 

The move comes as a surprise, as WCC and Democratic Bulgaria had kept close to their promise not to enter into any deals with GERB.

On May 17, ex-PM Borissov stated that since the two opposition parties would not support his mandate, he would not support them either, when the mandate went to them.

Exactly the opposite happened on Monday.

"Our alliance takes responsibility at a time when the European future of the country is threatened by timeless interim cabinets," Democratic Bulgaria said, referencing the increased powers of President Rumen Radev, who has been selecting cabinets after each of a series of inconclusive elections. 

"We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria will propose a government that can implement constitutional reform with broad parliamentary and public support, fulfil all requirements related to the country's full and active membership in the...