site.btaMRF Co-leader Peevski Calls on GERB, CC-DB to Reach Agreement on New Government

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) co-leader Delyan Peevski Monday morning called on the heads of GERB and Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) to do everything in their power to reach an agreement on a new government by noon on Monday. "Sit down, sign [an agreement], you will have the MRF's support. It is time for a new start for Bulgaria, and the MRF will work for that," Peevski is quoted as saying in a press release of his party. 

Peevski's comment comes after late on Sunday, GERB-UDF and CC-DB each gave a news conference suggesting that their negotiations over the past week on a new government might fail. At noon on Monday, President Rumen Radev is scheduled to present a cabinet-forming mandate on GERB-UDF as the biggest parliamentary group.

"The fact that a coalition governs [the country] is the only sure and clear thing from the day the government of GERB and CC-DB swore in. It is clear to people that this is a coalition, and I confirm it as a leader of a party that gave its support in the name of Bulgaria's stability and security," Peevski went on to say. He was referring to GERB-UDF's and CC-DB's refusal to call themselves a coalition, instead describing themselves as a non-coalition and an assemblage. In Peevski's words, it is now expected of the leaders of the two formations to reach an agreement between themselves, to distribute the responsibilities and ministries in the Cabinet, and not to try to weigh them in kilograms.

That agreement will result in the most important reforms that started with the amendments to the Constitution: the reform of the Judiciary and counter-corruption, Peevski also said. That is a continuation of the agreement reached on the constitutional revisions and, as we have said more than once, we will support the Government while it works for the people and fulfills its promises to the Bulgarian citizens," he added.

"On Friday [March 15], I held talks with CC-DB about the coordination of texts concering qualified majorities, and together we elaborated many good texts that were approved by GERB," Peevski is also quoted as saying.