site.btaABV Willing to Engage in Constructive Partnership with Other Parliamentary Parties

118 POLITICS - ABV PARTY - NEWS CONFERENCE

ABV Willing to Engage
in Constructive Partnership
with Other Parliamentary Parties


Sofia, October 6 (BTA) - The ABV party of former President
Georgi Purvanov on Monday expressed their willingness to engage
in constructive partnership with the other political parties
which will be represented in the next Bulgarian Parliament. The
primary goal of that partnership should be to take the nation
out of the crisis. "We could even agree to adopt a joint
document to this end - a document establishing a partnership to
overcome the crisis," Purvanov said, speaking at a news
conference just hours after Sunday's early parliamentary
elections.

According to preliminary results, ABV's score in the elections
is just enough to get the party over the 4 per cent threshold
for entry into Parliament.

Purvanov said the parliamentary parties should seek utmost
consensus about updating the 2014 national budget and adopting
the 2015 budget, and about addressing issues in the energy
sector. ABV has ideas about how to stabilize the banking sector
and solve the situation about the ailing Corpbank.

In the early days of the new Parliament, ABV will propose an
inquiry into the energy sector crisis which can provide a basis
for proposals for the future energy policy, Purvanov said. The
party will also propose urgent measures to promote economic
enterprise, mainly by relaxing licensing regulations, and social
policy measures.

Purvanov said the formula for the future government coalition
will depend on the intentions of the leading party, GERB. He
noted that ABV has substantial differences with the centre-right
government format which seems to be taking shape and it will
take much effort to bridge those differences.

The ABV leader said he has sent a text message to GERB Chairman
Boyko Borissov congratulating him on his party's election
victory. Now, the initiative must come from GERB, he added. "We
are not going to force ourselves into their attention. What is
more, I want to emphasize the serious differences which exist
between us," Purvanov said.

He expressed his satisfaction with the fact that his young party
is entering Parliament after its first parliamentary elections.
But he added that ABV's potential is far greater than that. "We
expanded our support base by around 50 per cent compared with
the European elections," Purvanov said.

According to him, existing evidence shows that Sunday's ballot
may not have been fair and democratic. There are many reports
about large-scale buying of votes in entire regions involving
several political parties, "especially one particular party
which is now bragging that it has expanded its influence on the
Roma ethnic group," he said.

Purvanov went on to discuss ABV's approach to the Bulgarian
Socialist Party (BSP), which produced a number of defectors that
later joined ABV as a breakaway movement under Purvanov,
himself a former BSP leader. Purvanov said that at the beginning
ABV and BSP should align their conduct in Parliament. "When
there are sensible initiatives, the most normal thing to do is
to support them, and vice versa," he said.

Purvanov said ABV refuses to argue about which left-wing party
is more authentic. "We will show who we are by acting in a
socially sensitive way," he said, adding that during the
upcoming debate on the 2015 national budget ABV will set forth
their idea about a tax-free threshold.

The notion of an expert-based government died after the Plamen
Oresharski cabinet of 2013-2014 and will remain dead for a long
time, Purvanov said.

Discussing the possibility of making Bulgaria a presidential
republic, he said this is a long-term objective of ABV, which,
however, will not be pressed upon Parliament in the beginning.
"The first thing to do is to look for a way out of the crisis,"
he repeated.

Purvanov believes that another round of early parliamentary
elections would be a disaster. LI/VE