Bulgarian President Iliana Yotova is set to hand the mandate for forming a new government to Rumen Radev at 17:00 today. Radev's party convincingly won the previous elections, and a new - and for the Balkans critical - political phase is now opening.

In consultations with parliamentary groups, three priorities emerged that all sides back: the budget, judicial reform, and payments from the Recovery and Resilience Plan. Yotova said: „The most important priorities are shared. There was also agreement that the budget should only start in six months - this will break the inflationary spiral."

Bulgaria has been through three early elections in recent years. Political instability that at one point looked unsolvable - now, with a clear mandate for Radev and his party, is taking shape. But the question is: what tone will Sofia adopt next?

For Macedonia this is a direct question. Radev has historically not been a friend of our EU aspirations - his statements on constitutional changes and history have repeatedly slowed negotiations. Now that he becomes prime minister rather than president, his influence over those positions will be greater. How the new Bulgarian government treats Macedonian issues is a question without an answer - and one nobody in Skopje can comfortably avoid.

One thing is certain: the era of negotiations on Macedonia's EU membership without a Bulgarian „sentence" is over. Radev has the mandate, the party, the leverage. What he will demand in the next 18 months to „validate" it - that is the question our diplomacy must anticipate, not merely react to.