Bulgarian President Rumen Radev formally gave the first government-forming mandate to GERB-SDS on January 15, 2025, placing Rosen Zhelyazkov at the center of the latest effort to build a cabinet after months of negotiations. The move came after an early parliamentary election that once again left no party or bloc with a governing majority, forcing the country's political players back into coalition bargaining.
Fakti.bg reported that Zhelyazkov, the coalition's candidate for prime minister, addressed the president after receiving the mandate. The broader context was familiar to Bulgarian voters: a fragmented parliament, a prolonged search for the 121 votes needed to rule and weeks consumed by procedural wrangling before substantive coalition talks could even advance. The first mandate is therefore not an endpoint, but the beginning of a clock that gives GERB-SDS a limited window to decide whether it can actually put a cabinet together.
The report said the emerging arrangement would rely on a mix of parties and parliamentary support. Behind a Zhelyazkov cabinet, according to the source, would stand BSP-United Left and There Is Such a People, both of which would participate in government. The bloc associated with Ahmed Dogan's Democracy, Rights and Freedoms - MRF was also expected to support the majority in parliament, although without taking ministerial posts. That kind of setup reflects the unstable arithmetic that has dominated Bulgarian politics since the election, where governing requires stitching together a coalition from competing camps rather than choosing between two ready-made alternatives.
The proposed cabinet structure described in the report suggests a broad distribution of power intended to keep the coalition intact. It pointed to a prime minister, three deputy prime ministers and a 19-member cabinet divided between GERB, BSP and ITN. Tomislav Donchev was named as deputy prime minister and minister of innovation, while BSP acting chairman Atanas Zafirov would serve as deputy prime minister without portfolio. The remaining deputy prime minister post linked to There Is Such a People had not yet been publicly finalized.
That uncertainty matters because a first mandate does not guarantee a government. Zhelyazkov was said to have seven days to return to Dondukov 2 and declare a decision on whether the mandate would be accepted or given back. In a system where no bloc can govern alone, the difference between a successful handover and a failed one can determine whether Bulgaria gains a workable cabinet or drifts back toward yet another round of instability.
The political significance of the mandate is less about personalities than arithmetic. Bulgaria has spent recent months in a pattern of elections, negotiations and delayed compromises, with lawmakers first consumed by electing a speaker and then by finding enough votes to sustain any executive. The first mandate to GERB-SDS marks the formal start of a final push to convert that parliamentary math into a functioning cabinet.
For now, the main takeaway is that Bulgaria has entered the decisive phase of government formation, but not yet resolved it. Radev has made his move, Zhelyazkov has the mandate in hand and the coalition blueprint is on the table. Whether that blueprint becomes an actual government will depend on whether the parties involved can keep every necessary vote in place long enough to cross the finish line.
