site.bta2024: Political Overview

2024: Political Overview
2024: Political Overview
Parliament building (BTA Photo/Vladimir Shokov)

The political year 2024 will be remembered with divisions, the collapse of the so-called “assemblage” between GERB and Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), early elections in June (along with the European elections) and in October, and the lack of a regular cabinet. Bulgaria is entering the new year without an adopted State Budget.

At the beginning of March, according to the agreement between the two ruling political formations - GERB-UDF and CC-DB, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov resigned. The post was expected to be filled by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mariya Gabriel (GERB), while he was to be Minister of Education and Science in the future cabinet. But after unsuccessful negotiations between the two formations on the rotation in power, there followed three unfulfilled exploratory mandates to form a government - by GERB-UDF, CC-DB, and There Is Such a People (TISP), a caretaker cabinet was appointed, and early parliamentary elections were scheduled for June 9.

After the collapse of the ruling assemblage, GERB’s Rosen Zhelyazkov was dismissed early as Chair of the 49th National Assembly with 129 votes in favour and 103 against. The decision was supported by CC-DB, BSP for Bulgaria, Vazrazhdane and TISP, while GERB-UDF and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) voted against. 

Dimitar Glavchev, President of the Bulgarian National Audit Office (BNAO), was appointed Caretaker Prime Minister. According to the latest amendments to the Constitution, adopted with the votes of GERB-UDF, CC-DB and MRF, the head of State could choose between the Chair of the National Assembly, the Governor or Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, the President or Deputy President of the BNAO, and the Ombudsman or their deputy as caretaker prime minister.

The early parliamentary elections were held on June 9 together with the elections for members of the European Parliament in a low turnout. Seven formations entered the 50th National Assembly: the incumbent GERB-UDF, MRF, CC-DB, the nationalist Vazrazhdane, BSP for Bulgaria, and TISP. The surprise of the vote was Ivelin Mihaylov’s political formation Velichie, which was not present in the forecasts of the sociological agencies, but made it into Parliament. 

On June 19 the members of the 50th Parliament took the oath of office. Sixteen days later the smallest parliamentary group, that of Velichie, fell apart.

The 50th National Assembly ended without an elected regular government and with a large number of independent MPs.

A rift occurred in the then second largest parliamentary political force - that of MRF. Seventeen MPs from the parliamentary group led by Delyan Peevski, including the other chairman of MRF, Dzhevdet Chakarov. Thus, the MRF group went from being the second to the fourth largest, and the number of independent MPs grew to 39 in a few weeks.

The 50th National Assembly, like the 49th, had difficulty electing its Chair. The election was accompanied by controversy, adjournment of the session, and a run-off between Raya Nazaryan of GERB-UDF and Petar Petrov of Vazrazhdane. In the end, Nazaryan was elected Chair with the votes of GERB-UDF, MRF and TISP.

With the first exploratory mandate, GERB-UDF proposed to form a minority government. The nominee for Prime Minister, Rosen Zhelyazkov, was given the mandate by President Radev, and immediately returned it fulfilled. In the subsequent vote in Parliament, Zhelyazkov was not elected. His candidacy was rejected with 98 votes in favour, 138 against and two abstentions. 

The same vote also revealed a split in the MRF ranks. Some MPs from the group obeyed the recommendation of the honorary chairman Ahmed Dogan not to support a government with the first mandate. Another part, close to Delyan Peevski, supported the Zhelyazkov draft cabinet. The rift in relations between Peevski and Dogan was revealed in a television interview of MP Ramadan Atalay, later expelled from the MRF parliamentary group.

At the very beginning of the parliamentary session, one of the familiar faces of MRF, Filiz Hyusmenova, resigned and applied to leave. This was followed by a series of decisions of the parliamentary group of MRF to expel Aysel Rufad, who was then also deputy chairman of the MRF, long-time MP Ramadan Atalay, and Jeyhan Ibryamov. The MPs expelled from the group declared for the unity of the party under the leadership of Dogan.

This was followed by meetings with the Movement's honorary chairman at his residence in Rosenets, as well as an address by Ahmed Dogan calling for the resignations of Delyan Peevski, Halil Letifov, Stanislav Anastasov, Hamid Hamid, Erten Anisova and Radoslav Revanski.

The second exploratory mandate to form a government was handed to the second largest parliamentary group in the 50th National Assembly, CC-DB. They proposed a draft declaration on the way out of the political crisis in Bulgaria, including seven legislative initiatives and decisions of the National Assembly. The declaration was discussed with all parliamentary groups, except MRF. Having received no support for their proposals, CC-DB returned the second mandate unfulfilled. 

The third mandate was given to TISP, which held public consultations with all political parties and independent MPs in the 50th National Assembly. After the talks, TISP returned the mandate unfulfilled and the country faced new early elections.

President Rumen Radev chose the Deputy President of the BNAO Goritsa Grancharova-Kozhareva as Caretaker Prime Minister. After a meeting to present the structure and composition of the caretaker cabinet, the head of State refused to sign the decree appointing a caretaker government. The reason was Grancharova's reluctance to replace Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov.

Talks with those who, according to the Constitution, could be elected as caretaker prime minister followed again, after which the post was again taken over by the incumbent Caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev. By another decree, the President scheduled early elections for MPs for October 27. 

After the seventh consecutive parliamentary elections, eight formations entered the 51st National Assembly. These were GERB-UDF, CC-DB, Vazrazhdane, MRF-New Beginning with leader Delyan Peevski, BSP - United Left (a coalition of about 20 socialist parties led by BSP acting chair Atanas Zafirov), Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) which includes supporters of Ahmed Dogan, TISP, and Morality, Unity, Honour (MECh). Velichie failed to pass the 4% threshold and remained out of Parliament with a result of 3.999%.

The announcement of the official election results, instead of bringing calm to society, caused tension and raised questions about the fairness of the vote, President Rumen Radev said in a statement sent to the media. 

The final results were followed by petitions from political forces to the Constitutional Court for a recount, for a partial and for a complete annulment of the vote. BSP-United Left demanded that the annulment of the elections be linked to the return of the President's powers in the Constitution to form caretaker cabinets.

Later, the Constitutional Court admitted for substantive review five cases, all challenging the legality of the October 27 elections. The court consolidated the five cases for joint hearing.

Immediately after the elections, even before the new Parliament was constituted, CC-DB proposed to potential governance partners to set a "sanitary cordon" around Delyan Peevski and his formation MRF-New Beginning and isolate them from power, as well as judicial reform to prevent Borislav Sarafov from being elected on January 16 as prosecutor general. GERB insisted that their leader Boyko Borissov should be prime minister, while CC-DB are in favour of a less biased figure. 

With a record number of attempts to elect a parliamentary chair and talks between four formations in a bid to govern, the 51st National Assembly began its work. 

On November 11, lawmakers from the eight formations that passed the 4% barrier met for the first session, which lasted an unprecedentedly long time - until December 6, when the 11th attempt on the 11th plenary day saw the election of a Parliamentary Chair. 

The first working day of the newly elected MPs was also marked by protests. One of them was by supporters of MRF-New Beginning, outraged by claims that Peevski bought his way into Parliament.

On December 6, Nataliya Kiselova was elected Chair of the 51st National Assembly in a run-off against Silvi Kirilov of TISP. She received 140 votes for and 93 against. She was supported by GERB-UDF, CC-DB, 18 deputies from BSP-United Left, 19 from ARF. Against were one deputy from GERB-UDF, the group of Vazrazhdane, MRF-New Beginning, TISP, and the smallest group in this National Assembly - MECh. 

The lawmakers also elected seven Deputy Chairs of the 51st National Assembly. The MRF-New Beginning group did not nominate a candidate.

The parliamentary groups were also constituted. The Alliance for Rights and Freedoms named their parliamentary group Democracy, Rights and Freedoms - DRF.

The election of Kiselova became possible after BSP-Unified Left signed the declaration of CC-DB for the sanitary cordon around Peevski, following TISP’s example. GERB-UDF did not sign the document because they saw contradictions of texts in it with the law. Boyko Borissov, however, said and wrote that he would not govern with MRF-New Beginning, DRF or Vazrazhdane.

The election of Parliament Chair "unblocked" the subsequent constitutional procedures related to the handing over of the mandates for forming a government and the talks of the first political force for a majority and a regular cabinet.

On December 10, President Rumen Radev launched the constitutional procedure of consultations with the parliamentary political parties before handing over the first exploratory mandate to form a government. Formal negotiations for a regular government began in the week before Christmas, on December 16.

GERB-UDF recognized Democratic Bulgaria (DB) as potential partners and sent invitations to them, but not to their coalition partners CC. GERB also invited BSP-United Left and TISP in search of points of contact. The talks are on topics between experts of the respective formations, and GERB leader Boyko Borissov asked for more time from President Rumen Radev before he hands over the first exploratory mandate to form a cabinet. 

On December 20, before the Christmas and New Year holidays, GERB-UDF and DB announced that they had agreed to work on a draft agreement on joint governance, reflecting the results of the meetings held so far, anti-corruption priorities, and measures to reform the justice system. After approving the agreement, they will be able to start talks with BSP-United Left and TISP, the two formations said. 

During the first session, the MPs did not vote on the 2025 budget. On the last day before the National Assembly's Christmas recess, the members of the parliamentary standing committees on budget and finance and on constitutional and legal affairs were elected but left without chairpersons. The first meetings of both committees are scheduled for January 7, 2025.

At the beginning of the new National Assembly, the prosecutor's office demanded the immunity of CC co-chairman Kiril Petkov, and he waived it himself. 

On November 13, acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov submitted a request to lift the immunity of MP Jeyhan Ibryamov (from Dogan’s ARF). Later, Sarafov asked for six more immunities of MPs - those of Radostin Vasilev (MECh), Veselin Veshev (Vazrazhdane), Angel Georgiev (Vazrazhdane), Lena Borislavova (CC-DB), Gyunay Daloolu (from Peevski’s MRF-New Beginning) and Mario Rangelov (from Dogan’s ARF). Almost all of these MPs announced that they would waive their own parliamentary protection.

On December 19, the Constitutional Court issued a decision rejecting the questions of GERB-UDF and the CC-DB related to the powers of the Supreme Judicial Council. They were about whether, when the term of office of the members of the SJC has expired, it continues to exercise its constitutional powers in full and can elect the prosecutor general and the president of the Supreme Administrative Court.

There has also been a stir in the political life of individual parties. A national conference of MRF held on December 22 elected Delyan Peevski as the only chairman of the party. Dzhevdet Chakarov announced that they would appeal the legitimacy of the decision. With changes in the statute, the figure of honorary chairman was deleted. Delyan Peevski announced that MRF is also leaving ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats) and the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament because of a "values rift".

/MT/

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By 18:52 on 06.01.2025 Today`s news

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