Today's eighth attempt by the Bulgarian MPs to elect a speaker of the National Assembly also proved unsuccessful. At the beginning of the day, there was a ray of hope that this time the people's representatives would reach a consensus, but it quickly disappeared. Before the meeting, GERB withdrew its candidacy for the post - Raya Nazaryan, while leader Boyko Borisov announced that GERB-SDS would support Natalia Kiselova in the runoff. After this move, three nominees remained. "Vazrazhdane", "BSP - United Left" and ITN reaffirmed their proposals for Petar Petrov, Natalia Kiselova and Silvi Kirilov, respectively. Kiselova and Kirilov reached the runoff.

Natalia Kiselova, nominated by "BSP - United Left", collected 87 votes "for" from GERB-SDS and the left, 60 were "against", and 90 abstained. The candidate from the ITN, Silvi Kirilov, received 99 votes "for", 115 were "against", 23 abstained. ITN, "Vazrazhdane", the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms and MECH voted "for" him, while the PP-DB were once again divided - 17 MPs from this coalition supported Kirilov, 1 was "against", 19 abstained.

After neither of the two participants in the run-off gathered the necessary support, the work of the parliament remains blocked for more than a month after the parliamentary elections on October 27. The next, ninth, attempt to elect a speaker of the National Assembly will be held on Wednesday, December 4.

• GERB/SDS withdraws its nomination for president of the National Assembly