site.bta Government Resignation Goes Through in Parliament

Government Resignation Goes Through in Parliament

Sofia, November 16 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Parliament voted the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov on Wednesday. It was the single item on the day's agenda of the legislature.

The resignation of the cabinet was passed with 218 votes in favour and two abstentions.

Borissov tendered his resignation on November 14, only a day after it became clear that the candidate of his GERB party loses the presidential elections to her Socialist-backed opponent, in the second round of voting.

Borissov thus made good his campaign promise to come down unless GERB' candidate won the most votes. During a concession speech in the election night late last Sunday, he said the election results made it clear that the ruling coalition lacked a majority and would be unable to carry through reforms or even pass the budget for next year.

During a brief address to Parliament before it voted the resignation, Borissov said that his government will continue to perform its functions until there is a new government, and will provide conditions for consistency in the government of Bulgaria.

He also urged the Socialist party, being the second largest party in Parliament, to form a government, and promised that his GERB group will be "as constructive as possible".

The outgoing Prime Minister was sent off by the legislature with loud applause.

Patriotic Front co-leader Valeri Simeonov - the first to speak after Borissov - said Borissov was wrong to say in the election night that a new majority existed in Parliament including the Socialists, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and the Patriots. He also said his group will vote for the resignation but urged GERB to form a new government when the President offers them an exploratory mandate - unless they want to plunge the country into "a year of timelessness".

Socialist party leader Kornelia Ninova said her group will definitely vote for the resignation because "we won the elections together with the people of Bulgaria". She accused the government of "looking down on Parliament and the Bulgarian people", and of failing in all reforms, especially those in education and in health care.

DOST leader Lyutvi Mestan, whose party supported the GERB candidate in the presidential elections, took the floor to urge immediate start of talks towards convoking a Grand National Assembly to amend the Constitution.

Nayden Zelenogorski of the Reformist Bloc catalogued the accomplishments of the Borissov government and warned that a government resignation would steer the country on a path of insecurity.

MRF leader Mustafa Karadaya said it has always been the position of his party never to support a government with the participating of a nationalist formation. He called for a new compact between power-holders and people, for a new attempt for dialogue in the name of stability, and for an end to division along ethnic, religious and other lines. He called for accord to allow the adoption of a national budget for next year and set a date for early general elections.

ABV followed suit and called for prompt steps towards a Grand National Assembly.

DSB leader Radan Kanev said that the people are seeing what has been built but they also see what has been stolen what has gone unpunished. He recalled that from the stepping of the Government into office, he had insisted that the parties agree in advance on a short term in office and on calling elections for a Grand National Assembly simultaneously with the presidential vote. Kanev urged support for the passing of next year's budget to ensure a pay rise for the teachers and the modernisation of the army are not halted.

The Government's successes outnumber its failures, said in Parliament Rossen Petrov MP from Bulgarian Democratic Centre - National Union (BDC-NU) during the debates on the Borissov Cabinet's resignation.

Listing Cabinet's achievements, Petrov mentioned the financial and banking stability, the normal dialogue with businesses and trade unions, the pension reform that was implemented in the long-run, the judicial reform, economic growth, and the money provided for the first time in years to the Army for new weaponry.

What Petrov finds disturbing is that there have been six governments in the past five years. According to him, this clearly shows that the current political system re-creates instability and calls for changes, which will reflect on the economy.

The public is once again divided in the face of external threats, he noted, adding that if this is not overcome and the main political forces do not ensure continuity, nothing good can be expected.

GERB Floor Leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov said that in the past two years, his party has always given ground when there was tension and always took into consideration the other political parties in order to preserve stability in the country. Tsvetanov was adamant that GERB would never engage in populist statements and actions, would be honest with the people and would keep its pro-NATO and pro-EU orientation.

Speaking to reporters in the corridors of Parliament prior to the vote, Borissov said that even if GERB had won the presidential elections, the Government would have fallen anyway because of the budget, whose adoption would have failed because of the Patriotic Front's categorical position against it.

Commenting the future caretaker cabinet, Borissov was adamant that "whoever [from his Cabinet] becomes part of the caretaker government, can forget about GERB", because in this way the interim governance will still be attributed to his party.

Asked whether he will return to Parliament, Borissov said he is considering this option. Commenting changes within GERB, he said that he will gather the mayors, regional governors and the party's Executive Commission in the upcoming days and review the situation. According to him, there are many questions about what GERB did wrong, which call for help and analysis.

Speaking in the National Assembly lobby prior to the vote, DSB leader Radan Kanev said the only reason for the fall of the cabinet is that Boyko Borissov and Tsvetan Tsvetanov have been insisting on putting GERB's interests before the national interests. Kanev said: "We need calm and concord among the main political forces about how to get out of this crisis. The way out is not in the populism of the BSP and the Patriotic Front, but in a calm approach to the matters about the state budget, the necessary legislative change towards majoritarian elections, the right moment to convene a Grand National Assembly and adopt a new Constitution. All this requires consensus among the politicians, but right now all I hear is selfish, vain, populist statements."

Kanev further said that if Prime Minister Borissov had taken his advice about governing for two years and then holding elections to a Grand National Assembly simultaneously with the presidential elections, today there would have been a right-wing president and an elected Grand National Assembly working on necessary deep reforms. "But instead of that, the party was put before the nation. We got into a cycle of thinking about when it would be useful to GERB alone to precipitate elections," he said.