Bulgaria’s Gerb party on July 1 nominated Rossen Zhelyazkov, party member and ex-parliament speaker, for prime minister, and returned to President Rumen Radev a list of proposed ministers immediately after receiving the first mandate to form a government.

The vote on Gerb’s nominations for a government is expected on July 3. Gerb won the June 9 snap general election but has just a quarter of the 240 MPs in parliament. It got the support of the second-largest Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) but the two formations have only 115 MPs and were unable to attract a third party for a ruling coalition.

Zhelyazkov said when returning the mandate fulfilled that all nominated ministers belong to Gerb. However, seven of them are members of the current caretaker government of Dimitar Glavchev. Some of them are related to the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), There Are Such People (ITN) and Change Continues-Democratic Bulgria (CC-DB).

Gerb’s leader Boyko Borissov said that the government told Radev the government could be appointed by parliament “with a trick” but added that this would mean the government will only exist until the end of the year just to adopt the budget for 2025 and move forward the draft laws needed to receive the payment under the second tranche of the recovery and resilience plan.

Zhelyazkov said that an early election could be expected in spring next year, while Borissov said that some of the nominations for ministers can be replaced in exchange for support by more MPs.