site.btaParliament Debates on No-Confidence Motion in Cabinet

Sofia, June 26 (BTA) - The National Assembly is holding an extraordinary sitting to debate a motion of no confidence in the Government, tabled by 80 MPs of the opposition BSP for Bulgaria over the Cabinet's security policy.
Attending the debate in the plenary chamber are ministers from the Cabinet. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov is not present.

BSP for Bulgaria Floor Leader Kornelia Ninova said that her parliamentary group filed the no-confidence motion because the Government cannot fulfill its constitutional obligation to ensure the public order and national security of Bulgaria.

Ninova satirized the government saying she was sad to find out that the no-confidence debate started as a detainee escaped from a remand centre in the southern city of Plovdiv. "I hope they catch him before the debate is over or else he might grow a beard and vanish," she said.

It was a reference to a notorious recent prison escape in which, according to the Interior Ministry's account, police could not recognize the escapee because he had grown a beard and was wearing a hood.

"The Borissov government has been unable to protect people's homes from theft, people from murders and escaped prisoners, the customs from smugglers, the borders from migrants and the government from itself as ministers are trading recriminations for offences," said the Socialist leader.

She arguied that the worst problem for Bulgarian people remains conventional crime and used the Interior Ministry's own statistics of Fevbruary 2018 showing that 75 per cent of thefts remain unsolved. She added that 85 per cent of phone scams in 2017 were not solved either. "Bulgarian people pay taxes and what they get for them is incompetence and cluelessness," said Ninova.

She said that GERB promised in their election campaign to recruit another 6,000 police officers for investigations and vowed to ensure police presence in each settlement - either of which they have failed to deliver.

She went on with a detailed list of all recent escapes of criminals and prisoners. "Political appointments at the helm of the interior Ministry demotivate police officers and prison guards," she also said. "You brag about hiring 1,000 new policemen but over 2,000 have left the service."

She moved on to some well known woes in the Armed Forces and particularly the Air Force and its outdated equipment, and then to the migration crisis.

She said that an axis of countries is being established against illegal migration while for nine years now the Bulgarian government has been "following blindly the policy of Mrs Merkel."

Waving what she said was a document with the official Bulgarian position for the upcoming European Council, she said it is only good wishes and no real commitment to action. "Do you see anywhere here that we will be closing the border and lot letting in migrants?" she asked rhetorically.

"Borissov bravely says one thing to us [in Parliament] and to Bulgarian people but we are not sure he is as brave there [at the European Council]," she said.

She also mentioned a tweet by a Financial Times reporter saying that Boyko Borissov left early a June 24 meeting on migration held by some EU leaders, to watch a World Cup match, and asked if that was true.

The Volya parliamentary group is boycotting the parliamentary debate on the no-confidence motion. It was announced by the party's press centre which explained that Volya leader Vesselin Mareshki and part of its MPs are in Varna, where they continue their campaign for the repair of potholes in the coastal city's streets.

According to Volya, bad roads too are a threat to citizens' security. MORE/