site.btaParliament Keeps Party Subsidy Unchanged, Rejects Proposal for Slashing It

Sofia, May 5 (BTA) - Parliament rejected on first reading a
proposal for slashing the party subsidy to 1 lev from 8 leva for
 each valid vote the party wins. The motion was defeated by
86-76 votes with six abstentions. The "against" votes came from
the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the Movement for Rights and
 Freedoms (MRF) and Democratic Bulgaria. 

The motion for reducing the subsidy was made by There Is Such a
People (TISP), the second largest group in Parliament, and was
debated for close to five hours. TISP argued that a lower
subsidy was widely supported by a 2016 referendum which nearly
missed the vote target for making the proposition binding for
the legislature.

Iva Miteva (TISP) said during the debate that the model of
political financing calls for an in-depth analysis. She argued
that a lower subsidy will result in savings of 21 million leva a
 year which can be used in meaningful ways for Bulgarian people.
 

Rossitsa Kirova (GERB-UDF) said that the transparency of party
funding needs to be ensured before any decision is made for
slashing the subsidy and declared that GERB support the 1
lev/vote proposal in principle.

UDF's Roumen Hristov, however, said that his party is not going
to support the reduction.

BSP's Yavor Bozhankov said that his party views this proposal as
 harmful for political pluralism.

MP Yordan Tsonev (MRF) recalled his party's principled position
in favour of public financing for political parties and argued
that a subsidy of 1 lev is not enough to cover parties'
essential costs.

Atanas Slavov (Democratic Bulgaria) said that public funding is
a constitutional standard for party financing.

Maya Manolova (Rise Up! Thugs Out!) argued in favour of the
subsidy decrease arguing that 2.5 million Bulgarians voted in
favour of it in the 2016 referendum.

The parliamentary debate on Wednesday covered a wide scope of
other isses as well. The deputies took close to an hour to
debate the weekly agenda. An outraged Toma Bikov (GERB-UDF) said
 that Parliament will be disbanded next week and it is
ridiculous to hear proposals for judicial and social reforms.
"Obviously, we are in an election campaign and we are turning
Parliament into a laughing stock, which is not good," he said.
RY/LN/