site.btaGERB Expects "All Topics and Questions" to Be Sorted Out at New Meeting with Reformist Bloc Next Week

GERB Expects "All Topics and Questions"to Be Sorted Out at New Meeting with Reformist Bloc Next Week


Sofia, October 16 (BTA) - If any further negotiations between
GERB and the Reformist Bloc are held, the Bloc's outgoing
Spokesman Radan Kanev should attend them instead of trying to
reproduce talks at which he was not present in national media
appearances, the members of the GERB negotiating team: Tsetska
Tsacheva, Roumyana Buchvarova and Menda Stoyanova, said in a
position released by their party's press centre.

Interviewed on bTV, Democrats for Strong Bulgaria leader and
Reformist Bloc leadership member Radan Kanev accused GERB of
being reluctant to fight the mafia and to distance themselves
from the "Peevski model".

The reference is to Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) MP
Delyan Peevski, who is often cited as a monopolist of Bulgaria's
media market. Peevski, 32, has also been accused of abusing the
alleged monopoly for political purposes. His nomination and
election as chairman of the State Agency for National Security
(SANS) in June 2013 sparked massive daily street protests
demanding the previous government's resignation.

"The problem is the model of merging media power and judicial
power - something called mafia. Let GERB name it, and let them
together with us and the Patriotic Front change it, but they did
not name it," Kanev told bTV.

"What is their concern: they don't want reforms, or they discern
the mafia in their own ranks and in their allies?" Kanev asked
rhetorically, adding that the Reformists want a governance
independent of Peevski's circles and the MRF support.

Kanev argued that the GERB negotiators looked for a pretext to
disrupt the negotiations with the Bloc and when they did not
find one, ended them without a reason.

"Judging from Mr Kanev's behaviour, he has not yet realized that
the elections have ended. The Reformist Bloc's campaign tricks
alleging that GERB wants to govern with BWC [Bulgaria without
Censorship] and the MRF show that Mr Kanev is not yet aware of
the importance of the talks between GERB and the Reformist Bloc.
GERB's statement that it can by no way form a cabinet with the
MRF's support responds to Mr Kanev's allegations in a most
categorical way," the GERB negotiating team says.

"We in GERB are clear who nominated Delyan Peevski for SANS
Chairman. Everybody remember that the GERB Parliamentary Group
walked out of the debating chamber in strong protest when this
resolution was put to the vote," the position reads.

"GERB's refusal to accept their support and do business with
them, as well as the BWC's ferocious attacks against GERB
throughout the election campaign (such attacks were not launched
against the Reformist Bloc), merely show that Radan Kanev is
acting destructively with regard to all chances of forming a
cabinet."

"We are also bound to announce that we received information from
representatives of other parties in the Reformist Bloc, who are
not aware of the negotiations and were not invited by the
Bloc's leadership to join the negotiations. This is yet another
indication that the Reformist Bloc is an unstable political
entity which can hardly guarantee political stability necessary
for coalition governance," the position says.

The negotiating team urge Kanev to mend his behaviour because
despite the GERB negotiators' decision to discontinue the
negotiations with the Reformist Bloc, the party's Chairman Boyko
Borissov insists that everything possible should be done to
convince society that the Reformist Bloc is a stable and unitary
political entity. "This is necessary so that all topics and
questions could be sorted out at a new meeting next week because
the public expects us all to say whether a stable Bulgarian
government can be formed," the team points out.