site.btaGoverning Coalition Parties Agree to Work For Government's Stability

February 19 (BTA) - The parties in the governing
coalition agreed on Tuesday to work for the stability of the
government and to ensure quorum in Parliament.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party's (BSP) National Council decided
during a meeting on February 17 to assign the party's
Parliamentary Group to leave the National Assembly. The
Socialists hold 79 seats in the 240 seat Parliament, which needs
 at least 121 MPs to secure a quorum and continue to function.

GERB floor leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov, IMRO leader Krassimir
Karakachanov and Ataka leader Volen Siderov spoke to
journalists, emerging from the meeting at the Council of
Ministers.

"We agreed to work in such way so as to show that
parliamentarism has no alternative and that skipping Parliament
is not an option even when you are in opposition. We'll see
through our term regardless of the ongoing year of elections.
There is much to be done about people's incomes and about many
other issues and we are only halfway through our term," said
Siderov.

"We agreed to coordinate our legislative programmes and be more
disciplined so as not to rely on the Bulgarian Socialist Party
who believe that they can carry out an election campaign through
 Parliament," said Karakachanov. He went on to say that despite
differences on a number of bills, the parties have made a
commitment to form the majority and give support to the
government until the end of its term.

Tsvetanov said: "We have also agreed that incomes will increase
by another 10 per cent in 2020, which means that the government
programme is being implemented. We are responsible and we'll
secure quorum in Parliament at the expense of our MPs not
participating in international events."

The Bulgarian Socialist Party is distancing itself from real
parliamentarism and the chance for the opposition to control the
 executive branch of power, said Tsvetanov. "We won't do
anything which will make people believe that we want a default
victory in the elections," said Tsvetanov. RY/PP