site.btaVolya Not Supportive of Socialists' No-Confidence Motion against Government

Sofia, November 9 (BTA) - Volya is not going to support the Socialists' no-confidence motion against the government. This was announced by the two groups following talks in Parliament Thursday. Zhelyo Boychev of the Socialists' group said that their arguments are not shared by Volya. Volya leader Vesselin Mareshki said that as they are "pragmatics and professionals", they "cannot participate in idle talk", which was obviously a reference to the upcoming no-confidence debate.

The Left believes that despite the lack of enough support to go through, the no-confidence motion is not pointless. "A no-confidence motion has one very important purpose and it is to show clearly who in the Bulgarian Parliament supports the government and who is in opposition," commented Boychev.

Volya have said earlier that they would vote against the government when the Socialists' motion reach the plenary.

Asked to comment Volya's change of mind about the no-confidence motion, Boychev said: "What I see is that they backed the two budgets [for health care and for pensions and social services] on Wednesday and they will likely vote in favour [of the national budget for 2018] today. So, I guess you can congratulate [GERB floor leader Tsvetan] Tsvetanov for doing a good job."

Volya argued that it is odd to move for no-confidence in the government ahead of the holiday season and on the eve of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU in the first half of 2018. "We are going to bring up the issues of corruption, cartel pricing and contraband trade on a daily basis anyway and we don't need the no-confidence mechanism to discuss these for just one more day," said Mareshki.

He believes that there is no "critical mass of people who want early elections again" and said that new general elections are unlikely until after the upcoming European Parliament elections in 2019 - unless some outrageous corruption schemes or the like, with government participation, precipitates them, to use his words.

Mareshki said that the European elections will show the going public attitudes anyway and if GERB win again, it will be pointless to press for snap elections.

He said that the Volya deputies will likely abstain in the no-confidence vote and "will thus show again that they stand out from the rest".

Explaining his group's support for the budget for health care and for pensions and social services, he said that Volya continues to insist that the power-holders should deliver on their promise for a 300 leva minimum pension but it would make no sense not to support a smaller increase.