Bulgarian Parliament Approves Prime Minister, Cabinet

Bulgaria's National Assembly has approved the country's new cabinet and the appointment of its new prime minister, leader of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party Boyko Borissov, the parliament said in a statement Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – According to the statement, Borissov's candidacy was supported by a majority of 133 parliamentarians, while 100 members of the National Assembly voted against the GERB leader, who had served as Bulgaria's prime minister twice before.

The statement added that the candidacies of four vice prime ministers in Borissov's cabinet had also been approved, along with Lilyana Pavlova, a former minister of regional development and public works, as the head of the ministry which will coordinate the Bulgarian-EU relations.

Borissov and his previous cabinet resigned in November 2016, after GERB's candidate in the presidential election was defeated by incumbent President Roumen Radev. At the snap general election held on March 26, GERB received 32.65 percent of the vote, whereas United Patriots was backed by 9.07 percent.

In late April, media reported that Radev gave Borissov a mandate to form the country's new government.

Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed!