Following the resignation of the Zhelyazkov government, attention now shifts back to the presidency, where the next steps of the constitutional process will unfold. Once parliament votes on the cabinet’s resignation, the procedure resets. The head of state must begin consultations with all parliamentary groups and then hand out the three exploratory mandates in the established order.

The first mandate must be given to GERB. If they fail, the second goes to "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bularia" (WCC-DB). If this attempt also proves unsuccessful, the president may choose any parliamentary party to receive the third mandate. Should all three efforts collapse and no government be formed within the current National Assembly, President Rumen Radev will move to the next stage: selecting a caretaker prime minister from a fixed list defined in the Constitution.

According to the Basic Law, the president may choose from ten senior institutional figures. The list begins with the Speaker of the National Assembly, Raya Nazaryan, who has only recently assumed the post. The Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, Dimitar Radev, is also among the eligible names, along with the institution’s three Deputy Governors: Andrey Gyurov, Petar Chobanov and Radoslav Milenkov.

The Ombudswoman, Velislava Delcheva, and the Deputy Ombudsman, Maria Filipova, are also part of the group of potential caretaker prime ministers. The remaining options come from the National Audit Office, where President Radev may appoint either the chairman, Dimitar Glavchev, or two of the deputy chairpersons, Maria Nikolova and Silvia Kadreva.

At this stage, the presidential administration has not issued new comments following the developments in the National Assembly. Yesterday, Rumen Radev said that responsibility now lies with parliament. In recent weeks, including in an address to the nation, he repeatedly argued that early parliamentary elections are necessary and described the outgoing government as having lost legitimacy. He has publicly referred to the possibility of resignation more than once.

If the political negotiations in parliament fail to produce a working majority and no regular cabinet is assembled, the president will be obligated to choose from the ten legally defined names and appoint a caretaker prime minister. He must then set the date for the next parliamentary elections. The current situation means that, once the resignation is formally accepted by MPs, all eyes will turn to the consultations in the presidency and to how President Radev will navigate the upcoming constitutional steps.