President Rumen Radev gave the mandate to form a government to Nikolay Denkov, a candidate for prime minister nominated by the second-largest parliamentary group in the 49th National Assembly, the PP-DB.

The mandate was immediately returned to President Radev unfulfilled. "I will return the mandate unfulfilled, because in the current National Assembly there is no longer support for the government programme that we adopted with GERB-SDS nine months ago, nor for the reforms that were the basis for the formation of this government. The coalition GERB-MRF (the Movement for rights and freedoms) in fact wants elections and this is the result of their desire," Denkov said.

In his words, Bulgarian citizens will have to decide in which direction the country's governance should continue - "a tiny, lean pizza" (a metaphor used by then finance minister Dyankov to announce a very tight budget for 2010, ed.) or a European path for Bulgaria "in which incomes will rise".

The first mandate, which was handed to GERB-SDS, the largest parliamentary force, proved unsuccessful and was returned by the candidate for prime minister, Mariya Gabriel. According to the Constitution, the third mandate will be given to one of the other parliamentary forces by a decision of the President within seven days.

If no agreement is reached on the formation of a cabinet, the president must appoint a caretaker government and call new elections within two months, after further consultations with the parliamentary groups.

Under the recently amended Constitution, the President has to choose a caretaker Prime Minister from among the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Governor or Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, the President or Deputy President of the National Audit Office and the Ombudsman or his Deputy.