site.btaGERB-UDF Cabinet Proposal: The Debate

Following are takeaways from the plenary debate preceding the vote on the GERB-UDF cabinet proposal:

GERB leader Boyko Borissov: Mr Denkov, I will not allow you and the MRF to back us in any way. Judging from what we heard so far, we need the informed support of about a dozen of your MPs or as many as it takes so that we could shoulder the entire responsibility that Bulgarian voters put on us, to quote Mr Kostadinov. I thank the MRF for their support, but GERB has already declared that it will not support the second cabinet-forming mandate. We will not support a third mandate, either, because it is illogical for parties with 5-6% [of the votes in the parliamentary elections] to dominate over the first ones. This is not democratic, even though I respect your voters [of the smaller parliamentary groups]. Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov is the new strong figure in this Parliament, and this is not ironic. If Vazrazhdane gets the third mandate, a cabinet will be voted through. A majority for this purpose is already there, I can see it all day here.

Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Floor Leader Nikolay Denkov: GERB-UDF offers a government supplemented by several ministers trusted by Movement for Rights and Freedoms Chair Delyan Peevski. This is not even a "back to the past" government but a "forget about the future" government. We cannot support such a government because most of its priorities obviously divide us. Why exactly these ministers were selected, on what principle, were there any negotiations at all and, if so, when and with whom. Are they really offering us again the same ministers with the same schemes that triggered the protests in 2020-2021, as well as ministers from 2013, when Plamen Goranov from Varna set himself on fire and died at a protest against the first Borissov cabinet.

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Deputy Floor Leader Jordan Tzonev: The MRF will back the first cabinet-forming mandate but will receive the second one and decide what they will do with it. We, the MRF, will act statesmanlike when it comes to the first, second, and third mandates. The MRF will not hold talks with Vazrazhdane but are open to dialogue with the rest of the parties. The responsibility is on everyone: the first and second largest political forces, as well as the rest. The MRF Parliamentary Group acts based on political logic, on what they have heard from the voters. The first lesson learnt from the June 9 early parliamentary elections is that people's trust in the parties, the political process, and the government institutions has dropped to a critical minimum. The second lesson is that the people who cast their ballots or chose not to do so want a stable political process, a regular cabinet, a stable majority in the National Assembly, because the government is not an end in itself. The MRF expressed support for the cabinet-forming mandate of election winner GERB-UDF during consultations with President Rumen Radev in late June. A failure to form a cabinet will result in a larger decline in public involvement in the political process. The way out of this cycle of declining trust and endless elections is the formation of a cabinet under the current or future legislatures. Another solution is to change the constitutional framework, which will be impossible, given the rift in society. The MRF will do everything in their power to ensure that there will be a cabinet. We will wait for the third mandate to be handed and put in effort to have a government formed. The cabinet should be based on the values professed by the free Western world to which Bulgaria belongs.à

Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov: The decision which we should make today is to not back this government. The main question is whether we can find a majority which excludes the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. There is nothing wrong about new elections. The best thing about democracy is the chance for a right of choice. The succession of elections is not a crisis, but a cleansing process during which old dependencies sink and die. The big question is whether we would want to separate them from the body of the Bulgarian state.

BSP for Bulgaria Floor Leader Borislav Gutsanov: BSP for Bulgaria will not support GERB-UDF's proposed cabinet. The priorities set by prime minister-designate Rosen Zhelyazkov could not get the votes of BSP for Bulgaria. We remain respectful to our opponent, but our differences are significant. There should be a cabinet but of experts, of national salvation and consent, which should protect the interests of Bulgaria and work for the prosperity of the Bulgarian citizens. Nobody commands any parliamentary group, and I ask that such rhetoric should not be heard in the debating chamber. The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) is 130 years old and no one can manage its internal processes from the outside.

There Is Such a People (TISP) Floor Leader Toshko Yordanov: TISP will not support GERB-UDF's proposed cabinet and will vote against it. The country can only escape the political crisis through an expert cabinet with a clear programme and broad parliamentary support. Such cabinet cannot be dominated by one political force. No party has the necessary votes to dominate the others. If the President hands the third mandate to TISP, we will invited all political forces in this Parliament for talks on an expert cabinet with a clear programme. Then people will see who works for the good of the country and who for new elections.