site.btaUPDATED As Government Formation Seems Likely Again, Opposition in Parliament Sees Horse-Trading

As the prospects of a new government being formed by the two largest groups in this Parliament increased on Monday after nearly dying on Sunday, the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and Vazrazhdane both saw the continued efforts to form a government by the ruling majority as horse trading. Earlier on Monday, the Prime Minister-designate of GERB-UDF, Mariya Gabriel, accepted an exploratory mandate she was handed by President Rumen Radev to form a government after the March 6 resignation of the cabinet.

A successful rotation of the government means an unsuccessful development for Bulgaria, Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov told journalists in Varna on Monday. According to him, the formation of a government will happen mostly because Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria do not want to go to elections. This coalition will collapse and will literally have a problem with its political survival, Kostadinov said. According to him, there is already an internal struggle between its partners, which is yet to heat up because of the upcoming European elections. What unites this coalition is power, and the only thing that keeps them from falling apart are the compromises they are making with GERB, Kostadinov added.

“We are categorical that the mandate to form a government should be returned unfulfilled and Bulgaria should go to elections,” BSP’s Georgi Svilenski told a news briefing on Monday.

BSP is ready for elections and insists on two-in-one elections, he added. “We are witnessing a blatant trade with the state, distribution of posts and regulators,” said Svilenski. 

There Is Such a People leader Slavi Trifonov called for early elections. He argued that the solution to the current political situation in this country is an expert government, as there is no political force that will be able to form a cabinet on its own.