The politics of Bulgaria take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the prime minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
A caretaker government, also known as a caretaker regime, is a temporary ad hoc government that performs some governmental duties and functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed. Depending on specific practice, it consists of either randomly selected members of parliament or outgoing members until their dismissal.
The prime minister of Bulgaria is the head of government of Bulgaria. They are the leader of a political coalition in the Bulgarian parliament – known as the National Assembly of Bulgaria – and the leader of the cabinet. At times, the prime minister has been appointed by the President of Bulgaria.
The history of Bulgaria from 1990 to the present is the period of Bulgarian history that begins after the fall of Communism and the transition to a market economy.
The Council of Ministers is the main authority of the executive power in the Republic of Bulgaria. It consists of the Prime Minister of Bulgaria and all the specialized ministers.
Rumen Georgiev Radev is a Bulgarian politician and former major general who has been the president of Bulgaria since 22 January 2017.
A rotation government or alternation government is one of the ways of forming of a government in a parliamentary state. It is a government that, during its term, will see the individual holding the post of prime minister switch, whether within the same political bloc or as part of a grand coalition. Israel has seen by far the most experience with such a governing arrangement. The government of Ireland is now in its second rotation agreement. Usually, this alternation is guided by constitutional convention with tactical resignation of the first officeholder to allow the second to form a new government. Israel, which established the rotation mechanism in 1984, codified it in 2020.
The First Yanev Government was the ninety-seventh Cabinet of Bulgaria. It took office on 12 May 2021. It was a caretaker government chaired by prime minister Stefan Yanev. It was appointed by president Rumen Radev following the April 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election. It was succeeded by Yanev's second government.
General elections were held in Bulgaria on 14 November 2021 to elect both the President and the National Assembly. They were the country's third parliamentary elections in 2021, with no party able to form a government after the elections in April and July. A second round of the presidential elections were held on 21 November 2021 as no candidate was able to receive a majority of the vote in the first round.
Early parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 2 October 2022 to elect members of the 48th National Assembly. The snap election was called after the fall of the Petkov Government, a four-party coalition, in June 2022. This was the fourth parliamentary election since 2021, an unprecedented situation in Bulgarian history, the previous elections being the April, July, and November 2021 elections.
Galab Spasov Donev is a Bulgarian politician who served as the caretaker Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 2 August 2022 to 6 June 2023. He is the longest-serving caretaker prime minister in Bulgaria's history to date.
The Donev government was the 100th Cabinet of Bulgaria. It took office on 2 August 2022, after being nominated by President Rumen Radev to solve the political crisis that led to the fall of the Petkov Government and the calling of a snap election for October 2. It is a caretaker government chaired by prime minister Galab Donev.
Early parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 2 April 2023 to elect members of the National Assembly. These were initially scheduled to be held before November 2026; however, as no government was approved by the 48th Parliament, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev announced in January 2023 that he would call a snap election.
Early parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 9 June 2024, to elect members of the National Assembly. The election coincided with the European Parliament election on the same day.
The Denkov Government is the 102nd cabinet of Bulgaria. It was approved by the parliament on 6 June 2023, and is a majority coalition of GERB and PP–DB. Per the coalition agreement, it is set to be a rotation government, where PP–DB's Nikolai Denkov would start with the premiership, with GERB's Mariya Gabriel serving as deputy prime minister, and after nine months, the two would switch positions. Per the agreement, Denkov and his cabinet resigned on 6 March 2024 in preparation for Gabriel to form her cabinet, although the Denkov government stayed on in a caretaker capacity until a new cabinet is formed.
Dimitar Borisov Glavchev is a Bulgarian politician who is the current caretaker Prime Minister of Bulgaria. A political independent, he is also the Head of the Chamber of Audit, currently on unpaid leave. He was previously a member of the GERB party and served as Member of the National Assembly from 2009 to 2021. In 2017, he shortly served as Chairman of the National Assembly.
The First Glavchev Government was the 103rd cabinet of Bulgaria. It was appointed by President Rumen Radev on 9 April 2024, and sworn in the same day. The Glavchev Caretaker Cabinet was the first Caretaker Cabinet to be selected using the system created by the Constitutional Amendments of December 2023, and was the first Caretaker Cabinet to be sworn in in the presence of the National Assembly, rather than in the presence of the President.
Goritsa Nikolova Grancharova-Kozhareva is a Bulgarian auditor serving as Deputy Chairperson of the Chamber of Audit. A political independent, she was selected to become Prime Minister of Bulgaria and form a caretaker government in August 2024. However, due to nominating the controversial figure of Kalin Stoyanov for Minister of Interior, her appointment to the position was blocked by President Rumen Radev.
Snap parliamentary elections will be held in Bulgaria in 27 October 2024, after all three attempts to form a government following the latest June 2024 elections failed. They will be the country's sixth snap elections since 2021.
