site.btaTISP Party's Governance Consultations Continue with Rise Up! and BSP for Bulgaria

July 24 (BTA) - There Is Such a People (TISP), the party
which controls the largest group in Bulgaria's newly elected
National Assembly, on Saturday continued its consultations on
the country's governance with other parliamentary forces. It
held separate meetings with Rise Up.BG! Here We Come! and BSP
for Bulgaria. The consultations opened on Friday with a session
with Democratic Bulgaria.

TISP Finds Common Ground with Rise Up!

TISP Floor Leader Toshko Yordanov said after the meeting with
Rise Up.BG! Here We Come! that the two groups share identical
views on the judicial reform and social policies. "We may have
differences about the details, but the direction is the same,"
Yordanov told journalists.

He described the meeting as very constructive and positive. "The
 talks will continue at the expert level," he added.

The one-hour meeting was the second in a series of talks between
 the election-winning TISP and other parliamentary forces after
the July 11 early parliamentary elections and ahead of forming a
 new government. TISP's first session was with Democratic
Bulgaria on Friday.

According to Yordanov, TISP has invited to the talks all other
parliamentary groups except for GERB, the party which has
dominated Bulgarian politics for more than a decade. "GERB is
the worst evil to democracy," he argued.

At the beginning of Saturday's meeting, both TISP and Rise Up!
spoke against the role of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms
(MRF) as a power broker in Bulgarian politics. During the part
of the meeting that was open to the media, Rise Up! Floor Leader
 Maya Manolova said they want to bar "the long arm" of the MRF
and GERB from Bulgaria's governance. Yordanov expressed a
similar desire. "This is where we start off, and then we can go
on discussing other matters," he commented.

After the meeting, Manolova was asked by a journalist whether
her group was assured that the red line concerning the MRF will
not be crossed. She replied: "We will not support a cabinet in
which the MRF's influence is discernible. Period. There would be
 nothing wholesome about either GERB or the MRF sharing in the
next government or influencing it in any way."

Manolova said TISP assured them that support for the next
government would be unacceptable unless Democratic Bulgaria and
Rise Up! are involved. "That is to say, they will propose a
cabinet with a programme and policies after they become
convinced that they will receive our support and the support of
Democratic Bulgaria."

Discussing the possibility to investigate earlier governments,
Manolova thanked TISP for signing up to a parliamentary inquiry.

TISP and BSP: Similar Views, But Not Without Differences

After a separate meeting, TISP and BSP for Bulgaria concluded
that they support the same policies in some areas but also have
differences. The two parliamentary groups vowed to meet again.

BSP for Bulgaria Floor Leader Kornelia Ninova said the talks
with TISP will be discussed by the National Council of the
Bulgarian Socialist Party on Sunday, and if a mandate is
granted, the consultations will continue.

Toshko Yordanov, the TISP Floor Leader, also said that the talks
 with BSP for Bulgaria will continue. Yordanov told another
briefing: "That was our first meeting, at which we set forth our
 views about the most important things that need to be done in
the coming months, let's say a year and a half. And they set
forth their views."

Discussing the common ground between TISP and BSP for Bulgaria,
Yordanov said: "We share things in common. The same can be said
about quite a few parties, not just us and them. We also have
differences in some respects, and in some cases we have the same
 direction but different highlights about which we may not reach
 agreement, but these are the sort of things that should be
handled afterwards in the working groups in Parliament. The good
 news about the last couple of days is that we established a
single direction to follow."

Ninova believes that the similarities of opinion between BSP for
 Bulgaria and TISP are more than their differences. "We remain
opposed to the privatization of the Bulgarian Development Bank,
the award of concessions for motorways. We also have some
differences on pension adjustment, more specifically the
timing," the Socialist leader said.

She pointed to the existence of many similar views of the two
groups regarding the judicial reform, including the need to shut
 down the Specialized Criminal Court, the Specialized
Prosecution Office and the Counter-corruption and Unlawfully
Acquired Assets Forfeiture Commission, and to make the
Prosecutor General accountable. "We share the view that a
deep-going judicial reform requires amending the Constitution,
which takes time." One point of disagreement is TISP's push to
demonopolize the National Health Insurance Fund.

Yordanov said the BSP are a welfare-oriented party, while TISP
are more practically-minded. "They favour increasing taxes,
introducing a progressive tax, while we are opposed to
increasing taxes, but we have tried to identify our common
ground, because the only other option is elections," he said.

Commenting on the possibility to seek support from the MRF for
the future government, Ninova said this is up to TISP because
they hold the government mandate.

TISP and the MRF are to meet on Sunday. RI/VE

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