Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Bulgarian MPs fail in their sixth attempt to elect Parliamentary Speaker

Photo: BTA

The Bulgarian MPs gathered in plenary today for a sixth attempt to elect a President, which again proved unsuccessful. 
The candidates Natalia Kiselova from BSP-United Left, Petar Petrov from Vazrazhdane pary, Raya Nazaryan from GERB and Silvi Kirilov from ITN were again put to the vote. Silvi Kirilov from ITN and Raya Nazaryan - GERB-SDS went to the ballot again, but none of them once again gathered the necessary majority.

The Democractic Bulgaria MPs did not take part in the ballot. "Our part of the parliamentary group (DB is part of the PP-DB coalition that came second in the elections) will not participate," said Bozhidar Bojanov of Yes Bulgaria, stressing that they have only 18 votes, on which this election does not really depend. 


The next seventh attempt to elect a parliamentary speaker will be on Thursday, 28 November.

The current situation has turned into the longest first parliamentary sitting in the history of Bulgarian parliamentarism, which has been dragging on since November 11. This has blocked the work of the legislative body, as well as the possibility for the president to hand the first exploratory mandate for forming a government to the winner of the October 27 parliamentary elections - GERB-SDS. 

According to the constitution, "the president, in consultation with the parliamentary groups, shall assign a candidate for prime minister, nominated by the largest parliamentary group, to form a government." This is the procedure for handing down the first cabinet-forming mandate. However, the parliamentary groups to be consulted by the President have not yet been officially announced, as they have yet to be read out by the Speaker of Parliament.

On November 26, the Constitutional Court admitted for hearing the five petitions for partial or complete annulment of the 51st National Assembly elections filed by the PP-DB, Vazrazhdane, ITN, BSP and Velichie. The court ordered recounting of machine and paper votes in 1,777 polling stations. The results of the recounting of votes should be ready by January 10, 2025. 


Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Atanas Zapryanov

Bulgaria needs to reorganize and modernize its arms industry, says Minister Zapryanov

If we delay and do not reorganize and modernize our arms industry, in 5-6 years it will be exotic for the European arms market. This is a major challenge", said Bulgaria’s Minister of Defense Atanas Zapryanov during the discussion “The Hague 2025:..

published on 4/25/25 12:01 PM
Mark Rutte

Bulgaria meets NATO's target of spending at least 2% of GDP on defense

In 2024, Bulgaria spent USD 2.208 billion (3.964 billion BGN), or 2.04% of its GDP, on defense, reads the annual report of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. For the first time, the country has met the NATO target set in 2014, which requires each..

published on 4/25/25 10:53 AM

A discussion on the reintroduction of religious education in Bulgarian schools was held in Sofia

A discussion on the potential reintroduction of religious education in Bulgarian schools was held at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. The discussion was organized by the Ministry of Education and Science. Religions will be studied from a..

published on 4/25/25 9:29 AM