Back in January, Radev met with the heads of various parliamentary groups, trying to task them with forming a government, but did not succeed.
Radev then stepped down on Jan. 19 to start his own election campaign with Iotova, who had served as vice president, taking office shortly after. She appointed Andrey Gyurov, a former deputy governor of Bulgaria’s National Bank, as caretaker prime minister.
Gyurov superseded the country’s last prime minister, Rosen Zhelyazkov, who resigned in December, following weeks of anti-corruption protests against his government. His Cabinet, which took office in January 2025, survived six no-confidence votes before collapsing.
Since 2021, no single Bulgarian prime minister has completed a full four-year term.