Bulgaria’s President set April 2 as the date for early general elections

Taking into account the technical challenges facing the Central Election Commision, the elections will be held on the first possible date when there will be no risk for the machine voting so that the law can be respected, which provides for that every Bulgarian citizen should be able to choose - to vote by machine or by paper ballot. I will therefore issue a decree dissolving the National Assembly on 3 February and scheduling parliamentary elections for 2 April, President Rumen Radev said on January 24.

He hopes that in the remaining time the MPs will pay attention to the important laws - the anti-corruption law, the law on the control of the Prosecutor General and the other laws concerning the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), which are in an advanced stage. He hopes that the fight against corruption, the RRP and European integration will be a real priority and not just election promises.

Radev did not comment on whether there would be changes in the caretaker cabinet, saying he would talk to each minister.

BSP returned the third government-forming mandate unfulfilled, President to announce snap elections date after consultations with CEC

The President also commented on President Stevo Pendarovski’s proposal to suspend the access of a Bulgarian MEP and several Bulgarian citizens to the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM), saying that all European mechanisms will be activated so that this hatred and anti-Bulgarian hysteria will come to an end.

"Now you understand why I fought so hard for the rights of the Macedonian Bulgarians to be protected in the constitution of the RNM and for this to be a mandatory condition for the start of negotiations. So RNM has not started the negotiations. It has not yet opened the door to the room where these negotiations are taking place. I expect the institutions of the RNM to prove not only that they are not part of the anti-Bulgarian campaign - that is no longer sufficient - it is high time they proved that they are actively fighting against this campaign. In our case, rest assured, all European mechanisms will be activated so that this anti-Bulgarian hatred and hysteria will come to an end", Radev said.