site.btaSocialists Start Political Consultations on 2017 State Budget, Amendments to Election Code

Socialists Start Political Consultations on 2017 State Budget, Amendments to  Election Code

Sofia, November 15 (BTA) - The BSP-Left Bulgaria Parliamentary Group is starting political consultations with the rest of the parliamentary groups on the 2017 State Budget and amendments to the Election Code, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Kornelia Ninova told journalists in Parliament on Tuesday.

The meetings are bilateral. "I have not contacted our colleagues from GERB, and I don't expect a meeting with them," Ninova specified.

"A reasonable and statesmanlike consensus is needed so as not to leave Bulgaria without a budget for 2017, because this concerns teachers' salaries, disabled children's benefits and pensions," she said.

"The referendum and the people gave us a signal that we must change the situation," Ninova noted. She will wait and see how the Constitutional Court will pronounce on whether President Rosen Plevneliev can schedule parliamentary elections or not during the last three months of his term, when he cannot dissolve the National Assembly.

Emerging from the meeting later in the day, Krassimir Karakachanov of the Patriotic Front told journalists that the ranking members of his parliamentary group, of Ataka and of the Bulgarian Democratic Centre - National Union (BDC-NU) had discussed the 2017 budget with BSP-Left Bulgaria.

"We did not discuss support, we simply stated our views about a 300 leva minimum monthly pension," Karakachanov explained.

The Bulgarian Democratic Centre Party are of the opinion that it will be statesmanlike and responsible to pass the 2017 budget bill on first reading, Rosen Petrov MP of BDC-NU commented to journalists after the meeting with BSP-Left Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian Democratic Centre Party and the National Union Party diverge in their positions on the budget, said Petrov, who represents the BDC.

"We at the BDC advised BSP-Left Bulgaria to support the budget, this is not a budget of GERB but a budget of the State," he said. "We don't think that people will agree that this National Assembly should leave the State without a budget," Petrov added.

Georgi Kovachev of the National Union Party said that the tax laws must be substantially amended, which is why the budget cannot be adopted in its present form. He pointed out that the amendments will be drafted before the bill comes up for a second reading and this will affect the macroeconomic framework of the budget. According to Kovachev, "the budget must express a far more social policy."

Petrov said that revisions of election legislation were not discussed at the meeting with BSP-Left Bulgaria. BDC insist on a two-round majoritarian system. According to Petrov, the early parliamentary elections must be held under the new rules, reckoning with the results of the November 6 national referendum.