site.btaSocialists File No-Confidence Motion against Government over Security

Sofia, June 20 (BTA) - The group of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) for Bulgaria has filed a motion of no confidence in Boyko Borissov's government over its security policy.

The group's spokesperson, Elena Yoncheva, explained on Wednesday that under the Constitution the government must provide public order and national security. She said: "It is obvious to all Bulgarians that this government has failed to perform its essential duty."

Some of the reasons behind the motion are the escape of two prisoners from Sofia's Central Prison, conventional crime and a recent Air Force helicopter crash in which two pilots were killed.

This is the Left's second no-confidence motion against Borissov's third government. The first motion, over what BSP forBulgaria said was the cabinet's failed fight against corruption, was put to the vote on January 25 and was backed by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. Both motions have been filed during Bulgaria's six-month EU Council Presidency.

Yoncheva said that the BSP has furnished dozens of examples explaining the motion. The trust in the work of the Interior Ministry has plummeted, petty crime has increased, as have unsolved crimes, phone scams continue, she said.

Yoncheva said that no talks have been held with any political force on support for the motion.

Commenting the motion to reporters in Parliament, GERB floor leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov said that "the expectations of the public are for a full term in office of the government".

GERB finds "sustainability" in the conduct of the opposition in filing a motion of no confidence at the start and the end of the Bulgarian EU Council Presidency.

Tsvetanov said that National Assembly Chairperson Tsveta Karayancheva is expected to schedule an extraordinary plenary sitting for debates on the motion on Tuesday, and taking the vote at the end of the week.

Volen Siderov, floor leader of the power-sharing United Patriots coalition said that the BSP do not have a genuine and robust argument for the no confidence motion. In Siderov's words, "the main argument for the motion - that people do not trust the Interior Ministry, is irrational and metaphysical". He was adamant that the motion should be rejected "as this country and the people stand to gain nothing from changes or toppling of the government".

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) will support the motion, MRF's Central Operative Bureau and parliamentary group decided on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters in Parliament on Wednesday, MRF deputy floor leader Yordan Tsonev said that his party suggested security as a topic back for the January motion but at the time the BSP did not accept it.

Volya party leader and National Assembly Deputy Chairman Vesselin Mareshki said that unless serious arguments are in place for the no confidence motion, which he does not see at the moment, Volya is not going to support it.

Mareshki said that life in Bulgaria is not good and a motion of no confidence can be asked in any area. "We do not say that the security sector is stable and that there are no grounds for tabling a motion of no confidence, but the BSP are not those having the moral right to do so," Mareshki said.