site.btaBulgarian Socialist Party to Submit Request for Extraordinary Sitting of Parliament on August 10

August 6 (BTA) - The BSP for Bulgaria parliamentary group is submitting a petition for an extraordinary sitting of the National Assembly on Monday, August 10, at 1 pm, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Kornelia Ninova said at a press conference on Thursday.

At the sitting, MPs are to discuss a decision of the National Assembly which obliges the Council of Ministers to submit a budget update within seven days in connection with the socio-economic measures related to the COVID-19 crisis, as well as a hearing of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and the Interior Minister regarding violence exhibited against journalists and protestors during GERB's National Conference on Wednesday.

Ninova explained that in the presence of the necessary number of signatures, which the BSP already has, the National Assembly Chair should convene an extraordinary sitting, but that the MPs can decide whether to adopt the proposed agenda or not.

Ninova said that, depending on the budget update the government submits, the BSP will decide whether to support it or not, but that the final decision should be made in the National Assembly by changing the budget, her political reasoning being that for years one person has single-handedly decided how to spend government money, usually, in her words, for party, personal or election purposes. By submitting a proposal for a budget update in the National Assembly, other political parties will be given the opportunity to make proposals as well.

BSP MP Rumen Gechev argued that the Council of Ministers' initiative to increase up to 30 per cent of salaries in the state administration in 28 institutions and agencies is a panic pre-election measure. He noted that there are too many unknowns in this endeavour such as how many people this concerns, by how much will their salaries be raised by, by what criteria. Gechev believes that it is not clear what will happen to salaries in other areas, and that the starting salaries of young researchers should also be increased.

Gechev was adamant that no one has the right to take money from those provided for investments in the ministries and move them to the salary fund without a sanction from the National Assembly.

The BSP is questioning whether the state will take out a new loan or the funds will come from the fiscal reserve. They also want to know what happened to the first stage of four billion leva, announced by the government after the outbreak of the pandemic. Of these, less than four percent have been absorbed, where is the rest of the money, Gechev asked. RI/DT

/DT/