Boiko Borissov leads his party the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, into government on July 27 2009 with Parliament set to endorse his cabinet.
 
Parliament was expected to begin proceedings at about 10am, with Borissov – named as prime minister-designate after President Georgi Purvanov handed him a mandate to form an administration in the light of GERB having won the largest share of votes at the July 5 parliamentary elections – guaranteed more than enough votes to secure the National Assembly’s approval of his executive.
 
In the days after the elections, Borissov announced the decision that his cabinet would be formed solely from GERB. This has not held back some minority parties from endorsing the incoming government.
 
The cabinet announced by Borissov will have 16 ministers. On the eve of the vote, it appeared that the outcome in Parliament would be that 162 MPs would cast their ballots to confirm Borissov as prime minister, while 157 would vote to approve his cabinet.
 
GERB has 116 seats in Bulgaria’s 240-seat unicameral Parliament. Backing approval of the cabinet would be Volen Siderov’s Ataka and Yane Yanev’s Order Law and Justice, with 21 and 10 seats, respectively.
 
The centre-right Blue Coalition sent differing messages on the weekend before the parliamentary vote. One of the two major constituent parties, the Union of Democratic Forces, decided on July 25 to support Borissov’s cabinet, while the other major party in the coalition, the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, announced on July 27 that it too would vote in favour - even though the DSB had also voiced vehement objections to the inclusion of former communist-era security services collaborator Bozhidar Dimitrov as minister without portfolio.
 
However, the outgoing ruling coalition had a parting shot in store.
 
The Bulgarian Socialist Party-dominated Coalition for Bulgaria, with 40 seats, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, with 38, confirmed that they would vote against. The BSP, MRF and Simeon Saxe-Coburg’s party the National Movement for Stability and Progress – the latter won no seats on July 5 – made up the tripartite coalition that ran Bulgaria from 2005 until now.

From Bulgarian media reports, it appeared that one of the objections of the MRF, a party supported and led mainly by Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent and of the Muslim faith, was that Ataka - which includes being anti-Turkish as part of its stock-in-trade - would be supporting Borissov's cabinet. The MRF decision was announced late on July 26 after a meeting of some hours.
 
Some time after the parliamentary vote and a formal handover ceremony, to be broadcast live on Bulgarian National Television, Borissov’s administration was expected to name the deputy ministers and some other key posts.
 
On July 26, Bulgaria’s Dnevnik website said that Borissov had confirmed that Roumyana Bachvarova of Market Links would be the head of the prime minister’s office, the chef de cabinet, as the office is referred to in Bulgarian.
 
In an article on the eve of the Borissov cabinet being sworn in, Bulgarian-language mass-circulation daily Trud said that its polls indicated widespread support for the incoming administration.