site.btaNew Bulgarian Parliament: Bulgarian Socialist Party Sees Four Political Challenges to Incumbents

Sofia, July 21 (BTA) - Addressing the new Bulgarian Parliament
during its inaugural meeting here on Wednesday, Bulgarian
Socialist Party (BSP) leader Kornelia Ninova said that the
National Assembly is faced with four political challenges and
that it is up to the MPs to either tackle them or push Bulgaria
into a political crisis.

The first challenge, according to Ninova, is the record-low
voter turnover at the July 11 snap elections, which should serve
 as a warning to all MPs and  prompt them work for increasing
the trust in Parliament.

The second challenge is the fragmented Parliament. Noting the
need for dialogue, Ninova said the dialogue had been undermined
beforehand with divisive lines, such as anti-establishment and
establishment parties. "This is a mistake. The red line is not
systemic versus anti-systemic parties, but between parties that
have the will to change the old governance model and parties
that want to keep it or sweep it under an imitation of change,"
Ninova said.

The third challenge is forming a stable government, and the
fourth - completing the effort to dismantle the old governance
model and build a new one, Ninova said.

The BSP leader reiterated her party's decision that if the first
 two government-forming mandates are unsuccessful and the BSP is
 handed the third one, the party will propose priorities,
initiate transparent discussions on them, suggest a cabinet
line-up which, among others, will include ministers from the
caretaker government.

Ninova also said that Bulgaria is lagging behind with its
Recovery and Resilience Plan. The BSP will insist that the plan
is urgently submitted for discussion by Parliament and then sent
 to the European Commission.

"For all this we need political stability," she said.

The BSP has 36 MPs in the 240-seat National Assembly.
ZH