site.btaBoyko Borissov to Head Negotiating Team for Coalition Talks

Boyko Borissov to Head Negotiating Team for Coalition Talks

Sofia, April 3 (BTA) - GERB leader Boyko Borissov will head the negotiating team for the talks on a future coalition government, GERB's Liliyana Pavlova told reporters here Monday. The negotiating team will also include Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Tomislav Donchev, Vladislav Goranov and Delyan Dobrev. On Monday, GERB discussed in detail its government programme and its first legislative priorities.

"We are turning our election platform into a government programme with deadlines and authorities in charge for each issue and each area," said Pavlova. According to her, the government will start working on these from its first day in office.

In a simultaneous effort, lawyers are working on GERB's first legislative steps and among these are the anti-corruption bill, revisions to the election legislation to set in place a majoritarian system and reducing red tape.

"When the programme is prepared this or next week, we will present it to the possible coalition partners," said Pavlova.

Vladislav Goranov was adamant that a GERB government is unthinkable without Boyko Borissov as Prime Minister.

He hopes that the new government will be ready by the end of this month at the latest.

By the end of this or early next week, the GERB parliamentary group will meet to discuss its priorities.

"We will have talks with everybody but the Bulgarian Socialist Party," said Goranov - and then added that dialogue is also impossible with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms "because they have never been potential partners of GERB". This practically leaves only the United Patriots and Volya that GERB can discuss a government coalition with.

In Goranov's words, a minority government is "an extreme option" as it will be very difficult for such a government to lobby support for anything.

Goranov is optimistic that the future government will serve out a full mandate.

He described as "a social experiment" the calls of United Patriots co-leader Valeri Simeonov for a government with a Prime Minister other than Borissov and said the aim of such calls is "to push up the price of the junior partner". He said that Simeonov, of course, is free to opt out of participating in the government.

Goranov said that GERB is not in a conflict with the United Patriots.

He, however, did not rule out differences with them on the issue of the majoritarian voting system.

GERB is firmly in favour and the United Patriots are firmly against replacing the effective proportional representation system in general elections with a majoritarian system, as was voted by the majority of Bulgarians in a recent referendum that also proposed slashing the party subsidies.

The referendum, however, did not get enough support to become binding for the legislature and it is now up to Parliament to make a decision.

Vladislav Goranov said that a congress of the European People's Party (EPP) in Malta last week did not discuss the participation of nationalist formations in GERB's government.

GERB is an EPP member party.