The National Assembly is visibly becoming more and more overwhelmed by scandals and campaign speeches, while it has important tasks to perform, such as the adoption of laws in relation to the Recovery and Resilience Plan and Bulgaria's accession to the Schengen area. President Rumen Radev said this to journalists as he took part in the Epiphany ritual of water blessing of the battle standards of the Bulgarian army. 

When asked to whom he would give the third mandate to form a government, he replied that he would announce his decision in due course, and stressed that if there is no (functioning) parliament now, the next one will consider these laws in May or June at the earliest. 

Answering to a question about the state of Bulgaria's air force, the President said the Defence Ministry was doing everything possible to ensure the airworthiness of the MIG-29 fighter jets and to find and find fighters to use until the F-16 squadron is manned.