site.btaParliament Ends First Mandate for Government Formation

On 226 votes with nobody voting against and only one abstention from Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria, Parliament voted Tuesday a resolution that the first mandate for the formation of a government with Mariya Gabriel of GERB as Prime Minister has not succeeded.

The draft resolution was moved by GERB on Monday after Gabriel sent a letter to the legislature to tell them that she was withdrawing from the government forming procedure and would not propose a cabinet. 

Some statements during the debate in the plenary hall were strong-worded, some were derisive of CC-DB.

Pavela Mitova of There Is Such a People said her party had warned GERB, based on its experience, that dialogue with CC-DB is impossible "because they are feel entitled, they feel everything belongs to them by law". "They are incapable of compromise and partnership because they believe themselves to be guardians of moral values. [...] You said a lot of things and they were downright lies: to your partners, yourself, the Bulgarian people, which is why now you have to bear the consequences," she said.

Socialist leader Korneliya Ninova said her party is not going to participate in talks on the second mandate (which will go to CC-DB in their capacity as the second largest group in Parliament) and does not want the third, and last, mandate either. She also said: "This is a natural ending to an unnatural coalition. A coalition that was conceived viciously because those who wanted to fight the mafia, to clean up the backstage, to deal with state capture, embraced the mafia. Instead of cleaning it up, they offered to share the state with it. All this was dressed up in beautiful words about Euro-Atlanticism, higher goals, only you were not driven by higher goals but by lower passions. A government can't last long when it is driven by base emotions - one party's fear of retribution and the other party's greed for power. The result is what we see today". Ninova said that her party has the moral right to judge today because it "did not give in to temptations, to backroom deals" and its goal has been throughout to fight state capture.  

CC-DB co-leader Kiril Petkov said that "there is something very simple put on the table: an agreement that demands reform of the justice system, real reform, through a transparent process, not on paper". "It would be the biggest mistake if the proposal [to GERB-UDF] read out by Atanas Atanasov is seen as a plea," he stressed. He urged GERB to keep their word from nine months ago because, in his words, "in politics and in life the most important thing is to keep your word". "The most important thing is to do every action not out of fear, greed, but out of a sense of duty," he said.

Tsoncho Ganev of Vazrazhdane said that "Bulgarian people are not tired of going to elections but are disgusted of what they have been seeing in recent years: shameful coalitions and unprincipled bargaining, and today has been the climax of what we have seen in the last 35 years". Addressing CC-DB, he said: "You have reached the bottom and continued digging, coming to a point where in the plenary you are imploring [GERB leader Boyko] Borissov to do you the honour and take whatever he pleases so that you can continue with the Recovery and Resilience Plan and secure hundreds of euros in subsidies for your sponsors." He went on to say that CC-DB are the only ones who are afraid of elections "because they are afraid of their own voters, of those who think because these people won't back them any longer".