Rosen Plevneliev

Right-wing Reformist Bloc (RB) coalition will only make offers on a next cabinet in case the President gives them a mandate to form it, RB officials have said.

On Wednesday, BSP will return the mandate and will not participate with its own cadres in a new government within the framework of the current Parliament, announced on BNR the left-wing deputy Georgi Svilenski.

"It is not right for the biggest political force to back a significantly smaller one," stated Deputy PM Rumyana Bachvarova in relation to the intention of President Rossen Plevneliev to hand a mandate for the forming of a government to the Reformist Bloc.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has said his conservative GERB party will not participate in any cabinet made after the early election unless it emerges it gets the biggest share of the vote.

President Rosen Plevneliev and outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov have pondered an option to keep the current government in office until the new head of state takes over in January, daily 24 Chasa says, citing its own sources.

The scenario has been tabled after Borisov's final decision to return the mandate to Plevneliev on Friday.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has said he has a strong preference for giving the Reformist Bloc coalition a mandate to form a government.

Plevneliev, in an interview with the public broadcaster's Panorama, has put an end to speculation that he intends on giving the nationalist Patriotic Front coalition a chance to form a government later in December.

"It is up to the interim government to propose an EU Commissioner," Bulgaria's outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has said.

Speaking to reporters after meeting President Rosen Plevneliev, Borisov has said his party, GERB, will not engage in the choice of the next Bulgarian commissioner who will take over from Kristalina Georgieva in January.

Chief of Defense Gen Constantin Popov is resigning, Focus News Agency reports.

Popov, in office since February, has cited the need to give President-elect Rumen Radev an opportunity to name the military officer who will take the post senior position in the Bulgarian Armed Forces.

Bulgaria's outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has returned the mandate to form a government on Friday after receiving it from President Rosen Plevneliev.

Borisov has only kept the mandate for less than a minute.

He has made clear his party, GERB, which is the biggest in Parliament, will not seek a new cabinet within the current legislature.

External pressure is probably being applied on Bulgaria to avoid the formation of a nationalist-led cabinet, Patriotic Front co-leader Krasimir Karakachanov has said.

In an interview with private bTV broadcaster, he has pointed to the PF's desire to change relations with the EU as the main reason for non-Bulgarian actors to work against a possible cabinet composed by his coalition.