site.btaUPDATED Kiril Petkov Urges GERB-UDF to Withdraw Candidacy of Raya Nazaryan for Parliament Chair

CC-DB co-leader Kiril Petkov urged GERB-UDF to withdraw the candidacy of Raya Nazaryan for speaker of parliament on Friday. He said to the media that he was speaking on behalf of both Continue the Change (CC) and Democratic Bulgaria (DB), adding that Nazaryan garnered the most negative votes of all the nominations.

Petkov did not specify how his colleagues from the DB, who abstained last time in the ballot, would vote in plenary session on Friday.

"I urge GERB to withdraw their candidate because to do the same and expect different results is the definition of "madness", Petkov added. He reminded that 26 days have already passed since the elections and the first political force GERB - UDF cannot gather a majority for Chair, not even talks have started with the second political force. "The fact that [the GERB] colleagues still refuse to invite the second political force is an outrage to me", Petkov added. 

Petkov called on There Is Such a People (TISP) to confirm their signature on the declaration of "cordon sanitaire" in exchange for support for Silvi Kirilov.  And he confirmed that the CC-DB will not nominate a candidate for Chair on Friday. According to Petkov, any delay in the work of parliament helps Borislav Sarafov to be elected Prosecutor General on January 16, 2025. 

On Thursday, after a meeting with the BSP-United Left, in response to a question, TISP MP Toshko Yordanov pointed out that there is no logic in any parliamentary force being deprived of a deputy chair of the National Assembly, as it does not affect the legislative process.

The first plenary session of the 51st National Assembly to elect a Parliament Chair continues for a second week. On Friday at 10:00 am, MPs will meet for the fifth time in a row in a bid to elect a Chair.