site.btaParliament Chair Zhelyazkov Comments on Post-Rotation Cabinet Controversy

"If Continue the Change do not want Mariya Gabriel to be concurrently prime minister and foreign minister, GERB will nominate another foreign minister. This is not a compromise but an alternative - the only alternative after the rotation other than prime minister Mariya Gabriel continuing to serve as foreign minister, too," National Assembly Chair Rosen Zhelyazkov said in a televised interview Thursday evening, commenting on a statement to this effect by GERB leader Boyko Borissov.
 
"So far, the rotation preparation process itself was making seamless progress until Continue the Change (CC) alone, without Democratic Bulgaria (DB), with their 36 MPs, set a new, unexpected condition: that Nikolay Denkov combine the offices of deputy prime minister and foreign minister, which is contrary to the written agreement, according to which Denkov was to be a post-rotation deputy prime minister and education minister," the head of Parliament said further. 

Reacting to Denkov's argument that CC need the foreign minister position so that the party's voice could be heard abroad, Zhelyazkov said this implies that CC "understand the foreign minister as an exponent of the CC rather than as a projector of Bulgaria's foreign policy positions."

Regarding Borissov's statements about his contacts with CC-DB Co-leaders Kiril Petkov, Hristo Ivanov and Atanas Atanasov and Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Floor Leader Delyan Peevski, Zhelyazkov commented that parliamentary parties' leaders should normally meet in Parliament. In his opinion, unless a specific decision has been made at such meetings, they can be regarded as working and informal contacts.

"It is not GERB that is afraid of the word 'coalition', but our CC-DB colleagues used the allegory 'assemblage' so as to get rid of what they believe is a liability," the National Assembly Chair said. He referred to the MRF as a party backing the governance policies but cannot be said to be part of the coalition because it is not represented in the executive branch of government at a minister or deputy minister level.