site.btaGERB's Talks with BwC Prove Unsuccessful

GERB's Talks
with BwC Prove
Unsuccessful


Sofia, October 17 (BTA) - During talks held on Friday, the GERB
party found that it has serious political differences with the
Bulgaria without Censorship (BwC) coalition and decided not to
hold any further negotiations with it about the formation of the
future government.

The two-hour meeting was part of a series of political
consultations which GERB, in its capacity as the winning party
in the October 5 parliamentary elections, was conducting with
the other parliamentary forces.

Menda Stoyanova (GERB) said the sides only got to discuss the
first four of GERB's 18 political priorities and found that they
agreed on the first one but not on the rest. GERB and BwC
differed widely about the financial policy of the future
government, she said.

Roumyana Buchvarova (GERB) said the talks lasted only two hours,
because GERB found that BwC's views were not what they had been
during the election campaign.

Stoyanova, for her part, added that it was disturbing to see
that BwC were inclined to deviate from their campaign programme,
even though BwC explained that their programme was designed for
two government terms and therefore compromise was possible.
Tsetska Tsacheva (GERB) argued that GERB refuses to condone a
type of conduct where a party issues certain messages during its
election campaign but then fails to offer a formula to carry
out its plans.

GERB felt that the BwC team were unprepared to set forth the
views of the entire coalition as a single entity, instead of
giving personal opinions of individual members, Buchvarova said.

Svetlin Tanchev (BwC) said it did not take long to see the
differences between the two parties. BwC were made to realize
that they are "too small" and GERB do not need their support,
Tanchev said.

Roumen Yonchev (BwC) argued that the meeting should have
discussed the framework of the future government and GERB's
governance programme, rather than BwC's programme.

The BwC team claimed that the views they expressed at the talks
were absolutely coherent and legitimate.

* * *

Discussing whether GERB will hold a second round of
consultations and with whom, Menda Stoyanova said GERB expects
the Reformist Bloc to sort out the issue about the legitimacy of
its negotiators. As for the Patriotic Front, it became clear
already on Thursday that GERB had serious differences with the
Front on four major points, Stoyanova recalled. She urged the
Patriotic Front to let them know if they are willing to revise
their position.

GERB is planning to meet with the Ataka party on Saturday and
the ABV party on Sunday.