At a brief ceremony, President Rumen Radev handed the second mandate for the formation of a government to the second biggest parliamentary group in the 48^th National Assembly – the party We Continue the Change.  

“We nominate academician Nikolai Denkov for prime minister,” announced Andrey Gyurov, who is chairman of the parliamentary group of We Continue the Change.  

“I believe you will make use of the time over the coming week to look for the necessary support from the other political forces, and return with a fulfilled mandate,” President Radev stated.

“I am accepting this mandate knowing well that the task is an extremely difficult one,” replied the premier-designate Nikolai Denkov. “Many people may say it is impossible. But we firmly believe that we must do everything we can to form a government. Many problems have piled up, many reforms have been delayed, and we need a government that will unite people and solve their problems. that is why we changed the approach to the preparations for and fulfillment of this mandate. We used the holidays to define four national targets, which we think unite people and political formations, and to draft a list of activities which, if we implement them in 2023, will bring us closer to the fulfilment of these national targets, and will restore people’s trust in politicians. Three formations took part in the discussion of these targets and their fulfilment – Democratic Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Bulgarian Rise,” Nikolay Denkov said, and added that We Continue the Change will submit a draft declaration on the targets of a future government to the National Assembly for approval.  He then handed Rumen Radev a copy of the document. If the declaration is given approval, then We Continue the Change will hand the President a fulfilled mandate with a list of specific names for cabinet ministers.  

If after GERB, We Continue the Change fails to form a cabinet, then the President has the right to choose which third political force, represented in parliament, to hand the third and last mandate to for forming a cabinet.