Parliament voted that the first mandate to form a government with Mariya Gabriel of GERB as PM has not succeeded

The Parliament on March 26 accepted the withdrawal of Mariya Gabriel from her candidacy for Prime Minister within the first exploratory mandate to form a government.

By 226 votes in favour, one abstention and none against, the Parliament voted to that the first mandate to seek to form a government with Mariya Gabriel as Prime Minister has failed.

This came after a statement by Gabriel withdrawing her declared fulfilment of the first exploratory mandate to form a government and declaring that she would not propose a cabinet structure and complement.

President Rumen Radev is set to hand a second exploratory mandate to form a government to the second largest parliamentary group - "We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria".

On March 26, Parliament will vote on Mariya Gabriel's withdrawal of candidacy for Prime Minister

Mariya Gabriel withdraws her candidacy for Prime Minister

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At a news conference on Sunday, March 24, GERB-UDF's Prime Minister-designate, Maryia Gabriel, announced that she would withdraw her candidacy for Prime Minister and that her party is not going to participate in negotiations on the formation of a government when the President hands a mandate to the second largest group in Parliament, “We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria”.

In a televised statement on the Bulgarian National Television later on Sunday, outgoing Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov called on GERB leadership to sign an agreement with WCC-DB and form a government with Mariya Gabriel as Prime Minister and without any changes of the ministers from the Denkov cabinet.

After long talks between the power sharing partners GERB-UDF and WCC-DB, on March 19, Gabriel went to President Radev with a ready line-up for a cabinet. “We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria”, at a special press conference later on that day, distanced themselves from the proposed cabinet line-up and said that the proposed ministers from their party had not agreed to be ministers