Nadezhda Yordanova formally accepted the second mandate to form a government from President Rumen Radev on behalf of the parliamentary group "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB) and immediately returned it unfulfilled. She explained that in the current 51st National Assembly, there is no realistic path to create a reformist majority capable of dismantling what she described as the “captured state” model, and that public demands for fair and transparent elections must take priority. Yordanova emphasized the insistence on 100% machine voting in upcoming elections, calling on citizens to participate in a protest at Independence Square later in the day to oppose attempts to replace machine voting with scanning devices being prepared in the Legal Committee.

President Radev handed over the mandate to WCC-DB following the return of the first mandate by GERB. He noted that the refusal to form a government narrows the options within the 51st parliament, highlighting that the main question now is not when elections will be held, but how they can be made trustworthy. He urged party leaders to adhere to the Constitutional Court’s guidance from March 13, 2018, and to undertake the necessary legal changes to increase public confidence in the voting process.

The mandate procedure comes after the resignation of Rosen Zhelyazkov’s government, formed by GERB in coalition with BSP and TISP, supported by Ahmed Dogan's Alliance for Rights and Freedoms. This followed widespread protests initially triggered by the 2026 Draft State Budget, which expanded into broader anti-government demonstrations. Radev’s consultations with parliamentary parties from December 15 to 19, 2025, confirmed that early elections are inevitable and that revisions to electoral law, including full machine voting, are a central demand from opposition parties.

With GERB and WCC-DB returning their mandates unfulfilled, the presidency must now determine which party receives the third exploratory mandate and how long it will take for it to be returned, as the Constitution allows. If a caretaker government is required, the president will follow the constitutional “house book” list of potential candidates, starting with the Speaker of the National Assembly Raya Nazaryan, followed by the governor of the Bulgarian National Bank Dimitar Radev, his deputy Andrey Gyurov (who has been removed from the BNB governing board due to anti-corruption proceedings), and the chairman of the Chamber of Accounts Dimitar Glavchev. Other potential candidates include the Ombudswoman Velislava Delcheva and her deputy Maria Filipova, though Nazaryan and Dimitar Radev have already publicly declined the caretaker role.