site.btaGERB and CC-DB Arguing over Foreign Minister Post after Rotation

Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel should switch posts as part of the upcoming rotation in the Cabinet, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) co-leader Kiril Petkov told journalists here on Wednesday. It is the most logical for Gabriel to head only the government, and not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well, because the prime minister's task is hard enough; it is not a good idea to combine it with an additional role, Petkov argued.

"We are currently discussing how to make it so that there be minimum quakes in the governance and minimum changes," Petkov went on to say. Gabriel and Denkov are a very good team. CC-DB backs Gabriel, she will be a good prime minister, he added.

Commenting on the matter, GERB leader Boyko Borissov told journalists that his party can make no more compromises. In his words, the way out is to make Gabriel prime minister and foreign minister, and Denkov to become deputy prime minister and education minister. Thus far, GERB and CC-DB have been arguing only over who will head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Thus far, we have made a huge compromise. We are the biggest political force [in Parliament], yet we gave them [CC-DB] our government-forming mandate, we gave them [the post of] the prime minister, we gave ministers only to CC-DB, the whole Executive and all regional governors are theirs. GERB has nine," Borissov said. He recalled that the memorandum GERB and CC-DB signed last year reads that Denkov is a very good deputy prime minister and education minister.

The Foreign Ministry's successes are the result of Gabriel's contacts, Borissov added. There has not been a single other appointment of GERB at the Ministry, he underscored.