site.btaParliament Opens New Session amid Anti-government Protests, GERB Tables New Draft Constitution

Sofia, September 2 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Parliament reconvened for its first plenary sitting after summer recess here on Wednesday amid large-scale anti-government protests outside a building in central Sofia where the legislature has just moved in all its business.

Later in the day, National Assembly Chair Tsveta Karayancheva and ranking GERB MP Menda Stoyanova submitted to Parliament's Registry GERB's draft of a new constitution and a draft resolution on convocation of a Grand National Assembly. The draft has been signed by 127 MPs, up from a minimum of 120 required for the procedure.

Earlier, GERB and power-sharing coalition partner VMRO told a joint news conference that, in addition to the ruling majority, part of the Volya MPs and several independents had also lent support to the constitutional draft.

United Patriots Co-floor Leader Iskren Vesselinov said that VMRO and GERB had reached agreement on encouraging informed parenthood, on the rights of expatriate Bulgarian communities, including relaxed procedure for obtaining Bulgarian citizenship, and on making voting a civic duty. The draft continues to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The two parties failed to agree on constitutional provisions introducing an educational electoral qualification, broadening the presidential powers, and military conscription. These three questions will, however, be put to a referendum simultaneously with the Grand National Assembly elections, Vesselinov said.

President Urges Cabinet to Step Down

At the start of the National Assembly sitting, President Rumen Radev addressed the MPs in a half-empty debating chamber after three parliamentary groups walked out to demonstrate their resentment with him. In his statement, the head of State said the Government should hear the street and resign and the MPs should turn down any attempts by GERB to form an expert cabinet.

Largely reiterating what he has already said on a number of occasions against the backdrop of 56 consecutive days of anti-government protests, Radev urged Parliament to "prevent the country from slumping into chaos, waylessness and disorder". "We have no way out of this dead-end-street other than peacefully, by the usual political act of resigning when confidence is lost," he argued.

The President also told the MPs that had they exercised better
control over the executive and refused to adopt lobbyist
legislation, people would not be out in the streets right now.

He said he agrees that Bulgaria needs a debate on constitutional changes to ensure rule of law, genuine separation of powers and efficient and transparent institutions of State working in the interest of the people. "This debate, however, should be held and decisions made by the next parliament and a government with a credit of confidence," he added.

When the ruling GERB, the power-sharing United Patriots and the opposition Volya rose to leave the chamber before he started his speech, Radev told them that "escaping will not save you from disgrace". "In this way, you prove that the real Parliament is out on the street," he said, referring to the protesting people outside the building.

The President called on the protesters to act peacefully and on the police to prevent violence and resist provocations.

Speaker Calls for Unity

Opening the new session, National Assembly Chair Tsveta Karayancheva called on MPs for unity and "to use the language of understanding in the name of the well-being of all people".

In her address, she spoke about Parliament's new building and the better working conditions it offers MPs.

Situated in what is known as "the Power Triangle" - flanked by the Administration of the President and the Council of Ministers, it was built in the early 1950s to house the Communist Party Central Committee and after the advent of democracy served to accommodate the MPs' offices and parliamentary committee rooms. Its grand hall has undergone a major overhaul to become the legislature's new state-of-the-art debating chamber, used for the first time on Wednesday.

Parliamentary Parties' Priorities

GERB Floor Leader Daniela Daritkova said in her address that no individual, political party, institution of State or political force can claim to be exercising the supreme power on behalf of all people. "A great politician has a choice about how to make their presence in politics meaningful and how they go down in the history of their country. People will hardly think fondly of somebody who, from his high office and guided by his personal ambitions, urges riots with a raised fist and sows division and aggression," she said, apparently referring to President Radev. Daritkova said that the debate about a new constitution will take place in a new National Assembly and only if it is a Grand National Assembly. "The debate we are going to have in this Parliament is whether there will be a Grand National Assembly," she added.

The United Patriots singled out a national budget update and revisions to a number of social and economic laws as their priorities for the new session. Deputy Floor Leader Boris Yanchev noted they his parliamentary group is determined to carry through the legislation that they promised to initiate and thus won voters' support. He also said that his group will "actively participate in the debate on a new constitution, table its own proposals and see them become part of a draft that will be considered by the future Grand National Assembly".

On behalf of the BSP for Bulgaria Parliamentary Group, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) Chair and Floor Leader Kornelia Ninova said that this Parliament has lost its legitimacy and only has two tasks: to make sure Bulgaria has machine voting and dissolve itself. She argued that the ten years of GERB's tenure in power have wrecked the social and democratic State and the rule of law, and now they are ready to plunge this country into a constitutional crisis as well. "GERB and Prime Minister Boyko Borissov are in a total political isolation, left to their own devices to struggle for their political survival for another couple of months or so," Ninova added.

She said that the Socialists will turn down a mandate to form a cabinet during the life of this Parliament, if things come to that.

That would happen if the incumbent Government resigns and the largest party, GERB, is unwilling or unable to form a new cabinet, and the mandate is offered to the Socialists which are the second largest parliamentary group.

The next to speak was Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Floor Leader Mustafa Karadayi, who called for the immediate resignation of the Cabinet and the President, if the crisis is to end. He said that an anti-crisis government of experts should be formed to roll out emergency anti-crisis measures and organize fair and free elections. "This expert government should be headed by somebody named by GERB as the largest party, and a deputy prime minister named by the Socialists as the second biggest party," he noted.

Karadayi slammed the President for failing to act as a unifier of the nation and opting for division, which he called "GERB's model of retribution". He accused Radev eroding all institutions of State, including his own.

Volya, the smallest parliamentary group, said they believe the best option for Bulgaria was "a broad-based expert government formed by this Parliament, including people who enjoy strong public support and the support of all parties, to lead the country through the upcoming crisis and prepare fair and transparent elections next year". "Anything else would be a waste of precious time," said Volya Deputy Floor Leader Krustina Taskova. "The nation is divided, politicians are under pressure: some are trying to cling to power and others, supported by who knows who, are showing an appetite to be the next in power. There is chaos in the streets, blockades and counterprotests. Some people protest with an honest heart, while others are well motivated by backstage powers," Taskova said. BSP for Bulgaria walked out of the chamber as she took the floor.

She announced that her parliamentary group will not support a new constitution and a Grand National Assembly.

Presidential Veto Overridden

In their first item on the agenda for the new session - and the only one for Wednesday's sitting - Parliament voted, 133-1 with one abstention, to override a presidential veto on revisions to the Subsurface Resources Act. The Socialist MPs stood out of the vote. RY, NV/LN, MY, LG