MPs Debate No Confidence Motion against Denkov Cabinet over Energy Sector Policy

UPDATED MPs Debate No Confidence Motion against Denkov Cabinet over Energy Sector Policy

Dimitrina Solakova, Momchil Rusev

An extraordinary National Assembly sitting on October 12 (BTA Photo)

Sofia,

12.10.2023 09:22 | UPDATED 12.10.2023 10:32

(BTA)

A National Assembly debate on a no confidence motion against the Government of Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov over the Cabinet's energy sector policy takes place at an extraordinary sitting on Thursday. The motion was tabled on October 5 by 71 MPs of Vazrazhdane, BSP for Bulgaria, and There Is Such a People (TISP) and by independent MP Radostin Vassilev.

The motion, initiated by Vazrazhdane, is prompted by the territorial just transition plans for Bulgaria's coal-producing areas, which the parliamentary opposition sees as devastating for the coal-mining industry and the coal-fired power plants. The Cabinet submitted the plans to the European Commission on September 30.

Under Parliament's rules, the vote on the motion can be held no earlier than 24 hours after the debate.

During the debate, Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) co-leader Kiril Petkov told the motion's sponsors: "To use a vote of no confidence as part of your election campaign shows electoral weakness." "In reality, you have no vision for Bulgaria, but only propaganda based on fear and hatred,” he added. People want a solution, it is time to think about positive solutions, Petkov stressed. “This vote will not pass, let it be clear that we will continue to fight for the people in the energy sector, for healthy and educated people, for a modern Bulgaria, for higher paid jobs, for Bulgarians to be first class Europeans, and we will fight for our homeland,” he noted. "Today we have a no-confidence vote on the policies in the energy sector, just 128 days after the election of the Denkov cabinet. I don't know how these 128 days have anything to do with the topics you intertwine in your motives - the closure of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) units, the unfulfilled Belene NPP project, the failed Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline," Petkov pointed out and added that, according to the initiators of the vote, Denkov is responsible for the past 30 years. "I suspect that some of you regret that we are in the European Union, but would be happy if we could participate 'in [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's Eurasian Union', the CC-DB co-leader further commented. "I suspect that the other day some of you felt offended when the UN gave Bulgaria 160 votes for membership of the Human Rights Council and Russia 83. Unlike you, the UN regards the Denkov cabinet with confidence that it can protect people's rights," Petkov underlined.

Iskra Mihaylova MP of Vazrazhdane said that Bulgaria is about to transform from an electricity exporter into an importer, along with all risks stemming from that. A base criteria for having an energy sector is the availability of a personal resource, she noted. "The irresponsible actions of this government have signed the death sentence of the Bulgarian energy sector," she argued. In her words, entire regions in southern Bulgaria are at risk of an economic catastrophe that will lead to depopulation and, ultimately, to a demographic collapse in the country. The public trust in the Denkov Cabinet has been completely exhausted; allowing it to continue working would lead to extremely hard consequences for Bulgaria in the long term and failure to protect the national interests.

/MR/