site.btaCC-DB Ask President to Give Them Time to Push Through Anti-Corruption Package before Trying to Form Cabinet

Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Monday presented a draft declaration on ending the political crisis in Bulgaria. Before that, they took it to President Rumen Radev asking him to give them time – maybe three months - before he hands them an exploratory mandate to form a government. They explained that they need that time to try to push through legislative measures aimed to enhance the combat against corruption – before trying to form a government. The President told them that the ongoing constitutional procedure is for government formation – not for a legislative programme – and that “in difficult situations of crises, everybody should stick to the law and mostly to the Constitution".

CC-DB is due to be offered a mandate to form a government after the first party that was asked, GERB-UDF, failed to secure support in the legislature for its Cabinet. The second mandate should have gone to the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) but a rift in the party and the expulsion of 17 of the MPs from the group, and subsequent walkout of several more, made it lose the second place to CC-DB. 

The anti-corruption legislation and other steps

CC-DB’s draft declaration calls for support for the adoption of seven legislative initiatives and resolutions, which are said to be "a necessary precondition for starting talks on a government with broad anti-corruption support" in this Parliament: honest and transparent election of members of the anti-corruption commission by at least 160 MPs, based on rules approved by the European Commission so as to guarantee an effective fight against corruption; a new Judicial System Act based on the principles laid down in the Justice Ministry's bill; amendments to the whistle-blowers protection law; amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure curbing the misuse of special surveillance means; adoption of an Individual Bankruptcy Act; election of a new ombudsman; and launching a reform in the security services by introducing an integrity test as the first step.

The draft document says the parliamentary republic can be stabilized only after the systemic preconditions for unpunished political corruption and illegitimate influence on law enforcement bodies and regulators are eliminated. CC-DB also says that completing the key stages of anti-corruption and judicial reform is crucial to resolving the country's deep political crisis. 

"In the last three years, we were the only ones who took on the difficult task of making a regular government and in the last elections we suffered political damage from that. The crux of the crisis today is that the same parties that came together and brought down the government now cannot come together to make a government of their own," Denkov said.

Bozhidar Bozhanov MP (CC-DB) told the press after the meeting with the President that they propose "a plan to try to resolve the political crisis by removing the systemic factors that caused it". "We believe that these systemic factors include the unreformed prosecution service, security services and law-enforcing bodies in general," he said. 

How it will work

"If the declaration is backed by enough MPs, then CC-DB can go to the President and tell him that there is majority in this Parliament which can form a government when these laws are passed," said Bozhanov. He added that it is essential to check whether there is really a majority supporting "these things". "We have learnt our lesson and we know that everybody would eagerly support a declaration for reforming the prosecution service, the special services, etc.," he said adding that the reform would take time, maybe three months.

Asked if the President is willing to wait three months, he said that it is a decision for the President to make. 

"If the declaration is not backed, we will request the mandate and return it promptly," said also Bozhanov.

He said CC-DB don’t know yet who their Prime Minister would be should their plan go through.

What the President said

President Rumen Radev said as he met with CC-DB that he will decide the timing of handing the second exploratory mandate for the formation of a government "as a result of their actions and the reactions of the other political forces". 

Rumen Radev told Denkov that he understood that they needed time to work in the Parliament. "In whatever form these important demands are packaged, they invariably lead to the provisions of the Constitution for this fundamental question: is there a majority in the 50th National Assembly to form a government.  According to the provisions of the Constitution, you have to answer this important question first because you have 39 MPs and your ideas [for legislative solutions] require a majority. And some of the things you are proposing will require a qualified majority." 

What the other political forces said

All political forces reacted to CC-DB’s proposal in TV appearances or in the social media. 

Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov issued a statement saying his party is "glad that CC-DB finally recognized Vazrazhdane's idea to fight corruption". It, however, did not make it clear whether his party intends to support the proposed CC-DB’s legislative ideas.

The Socialists are ready to hold talks with Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) but with no "pre-set restrictions", acting leader Atanas Zafirov said. Speaking on the Bulgarian National Radio, he said, however, that the proposal is probably an attempt to run away from responsibility and is very much likely unconstitutional. Zafirov also said, "If the CC-DB nominee for Prime Minister is Nikolay Denkov, the conversation is over before it has started."

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Deputy Floor Leader Yordan Tsonev called the CC-DB proposal “another brutal attempt to violate the Constitution”. Thank God the President brought them back to reality", Tsonev told journalists. Asked if MRF would support such a declaration, Tsonev replied that he did not see who would support such a "legislative madness". 

Timur Halilov, one of the MRF deputies who was expelled from the MRF parliamentary group after defying leader Delyan Peevski, said he and other MRF MPs in his position would consider the CC-DB proposal. "We would hold talks with anybody in Parliament, including CC-DB but excluding Vazrazhdane, based on specific policies, programmes and reforms. We would go to talks and would follow with interest what happens with what they propose," he said on bTV Monday.

There Is Such a People (TISP) leader Slavi Trifonov posted on Facebook that the TISP deputies won't be “a mere rubber stamp for the legislative proposals of CC-DB. He added that they will consider the proposed bills and other solutions, will discuss them with their legal experts and make "suggestions and corrections where necessary". Trifonov added, though, that according to constitutional law experts, postponing the handing of the government mandate by three months as requested by CC-DB, would be a flagrant violation of the Constitution and the President could be impeached for it. 

There was no official reaction to the CC-DB ideas from GERB. In a Facebook post, ranking member Delyan Dobrev urged President Radev "not to allow CC-DB to fool him once again". He said that the time CC-DB are asking would be used for campaigning "with generous use of talking points about reforms, regulators and regulations". "It is clear that they cannot win elections but their impudence has reached new highs," he wrote.