Speaker of Bulgaria’s Parliament confirms refusal to serve as caretaker PM

Meeting President Iliyana Yotova on January 27, the Speaker of Bulgaria’s National Assembly, Raya Nazaryan, confirmed her refusal to be appointed as the country’s caretaker Prime Minister.

The appointment by the head of state of a caretaker Prime Minister follows the resignation of the government, failure of the process to elect a new government, and takes place when the president decrees a date for the next parliamentary elections.

As a result of constitutional amendments approved by Parliament in 2023, the list from which the president must choose is limited to the Speaker of the National Assembly (Nazaryan), the governor or a deputy governor of Bulgarian National Bank (Dimitar Radev, Petar Chobanov, Andrey Gyurov and Radoslav Milenkov), the president or a vice-president of the National Audit Office (Dimitar Glavchev, Margarita Nikolova and Silvia Kadreva) and the National Ombudsman (Velislava Delcheva) or a Deputy Ombudsman (Maria Filipova).

Of that list, several have said publicly that they would refuse, including Nazaryan, Dimitar Radev and Delcheva.

The appointment of a caretaker Prime Minister is preceded by the head of state holding formal consultations with each of the office-bearers on the list of candidates.

Nazaryan, speaking after the closed-door talks with Yotova, said that they had agreed that the Speaker of the National Assembly – whoever holds the post – belongs a specific political formation and even if not participating in the next election “since there is no way that the caretaker cabinet can also be a registered candidate MP, the feeling of some impartiality or lack of impartiality will be high”.

This would hinder expectations of voters for a transparent process, Nazaryan said.

She said that at the moment, there was no clarity about the date of the election.

As of midday on January 27, the office of Yotova – who became president on January 23 following Roumen Radev’s resignation from the post – had not yet announced when the head of state will meet the other candidate caretaker PMs.

(Photo of Yotova and Nazardyan: president.bg)