The Prime Minister-designate of GERB-UDF, Mariya Gabriel, accepted an exploratory mandate she was handed by President Rumen Radev to form a government on Monday. This step follows the March 6 resignation of Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and his government backed by GERB-UDF and Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), meant to open the door to a government rotation as agreed nine months ago between the two largest political groups in the Bulgarian Parliament.
Gabriel accepted the mandate after difficult negotiations which came to a point on Sunday night when they seemed to be nearing a failure. First, GERB-UDF held a briefing during which they said that CC-DB wanted all executive power for themselves. Mariya Gabriel complained that CC-DB refused to accept her party as an equal partner, and GERB Co-floor Leader Denitsa Sacheva said that GERB-UDF would return right away the government mandate to the President on Monday, unless CC-DB agreed to share the power with GERB. They gave CC-DB until Monday noon to decide.
Shortly after the GERB briefing, CC-DB held their own briefing where it transpired that while the two coalitions agree on most things, GERB was reluctant to sign an agreement for which CC-DB insisted. CC co-leader Kiril Petkov said that nothing was lost and deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel could still accept the mandate on Monday after which there would be a week to propose a government. He urged Gabriel for the agreement between the two political formations to be finalized and reforms in three sectors to be defined. "Nine months ago we had a word between us and [GERB leader] Borissov that the agreement was for 18 months. We are grateful for this offer and we are ready to keep this promise. So the next cabinet will continue for another nine months," Petkov said.
After the mandate was accepted on Monday, Gabriel told reporters that the situation needs to be resolved as soon as possible. "I hope we will finalize the agreement within the next 24 hours. We have no differences about the priorities of the country," she stressed.
Later in the day, Petkov said that the negotiations will continue, as GERB's negotiating team, led by Mariya Gabriel, accepted CC-DB's proposal for another 24 hours for negotiations. "We state categorically that negotiations with CC-DB will completed by noon on Tuesday and Prime Minister-designate will meet with President Rumen with the final decision," the party said in a statement.
At 9 pm on Monday, the press centres of the two political forces told BTA that the negotiations ended for the day and will continue on Tuesday.
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