The head of state, Rumen Radev, has said that on Friday morning he will announce his decision as to when he will hand over the second exploratory mandate for the formation of a government. 

Commenting on Delyan Peevski's statement that the president was not in his place while the country was in flames, Radev pointed out that "the introduction in Bulgarian politics of severely compromised figures like Delyan Peevski and the possibility for them to usurp without hindrance the right to declare themselves Euro-Atlanticists, to dispense justice left and right, to become moral pillars, shows that our political system is seriously ill". 

According to Radev, "the way to restore it is through radical surgery" and "the scalpel is in the hands of Bulgarian voters at the next elections". The president was speaking to journalists in the UK, where he is representing Bulgaria at the European Political Community meeting. 

Commenting on the war in Ukraine, Radev said that it was high time to put an end to it. In Radev's words, "if we continue to sustain the same kind of war, with the same intensity, we are approaching a moment when Ukraine will be left without men on the battlefield. Then we will all face an incredibly difficult political and moral dilemma," Radev said.