Vladislav Goranov

The two allies in Bulgaria's outgoing government have abandoned plans to forge a new ruling coalition, tilting the country toward early elections.

"There will be no cabinet. We are not capable of reaching an agreement within the 43rn National Assembly [Parliament]," news website Mediapool.bg quotes the head of the biggest party's parliamentary faction, Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

 "We are forced to take up this task and form a government, if the larger parties do not form a cabinet and the president hands us a mandate," said on bTV the leader of the Patriotic Front Valery Simeonov.

He added that it is not good to change ministers in the middle of the mandate and that most of the ministers from the Borisov cabinet will be offered to keep their posts.

There will be no problem with the payment of the debt for the Belene NPP, stated outgoing Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov after the approval of the budget by Parliament at first reading.

Bulgaria's Parliament passed the state budget draft at first reading on Friday morning, BGNES wire service reports.

The vote dashes uncertainty that loomed over its adoption after a number of political parties had said they would not back the text as proposed by the outgoing Finance Ministry team.

Bulgaria's Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov has dismissed claims of Parliament's budgetary committee head that the government intends on withdrawing the draft budget for next year.

In a statement, Goranov declares that the budget already filed with Parliament will not "fall hostage to the unprincipled political confrontation... [and] populism."

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev has said he insisted on Sunday evening that the cabinet step down after results of the presidential elections were announced.

Donchev has told NOVA TV that his boss, Boyko Borisov, should have kept his own promise and deposited his resignation as the candidate nominated by his GERB party finished with the second-best result.

Bulgaria's main ruling party GERB is yet to take a stance on exit poll data which gives a narrow-to-clear lead of opposition-backed candidate Rumen Radev.

Polls have closed in the race that began at 07:00 local time (EET) and was extended to 21:00, an hour behind schedule.

Bulgarian considers proposing again a female candidate to take over as European Commissioner, media reports say.

Incumbent Kristalina Georgieva, sent to Brussels by Bulgaria and acting as EU Commission Vice President for Budget and Human Resources, is leaving in January.

The Associations of Honorary Consuls in Bulgaria has said it is deeply offended by the way the government evaluates their work in the country and by its plans to cut certain privileges they use.

At its regular meeting on Wednesday, the Bulgarian government adopted a set of rules aimed at improving the application of the Public Procurement Act.

These measures are taken to avoid cases in which politicians have to halt public tenders due to suspicions for the lack of transparency and irregularities in the selection process.