site.btaParliament Votes Zhan Videnov Cabinet Out of Office

On December 28, 1996, Bulgaria's 36th National Assembly accepted the resignation of the government headed by Prime Minister Zhan Videnov.

The cabinet was formed on January 25, 1995. It comprised representatives of a coalition of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the Alexander Stamboliiski Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, the Ecoglasnost Political Club and non-party experts. By the end of 1996, the country was plunged simultaneously into a grain and banking crisis, forcing the Socialist-dominated government to relinquish power two years early.

The uncontrollable economic crisis and the 16 bank failures that followed produced a fiscal collapse. The heightened political uncertainly that culminated in 243% consumer price hyperinflation in February 1997 triggered mass daily street protests between January 3 and February 4, 1997. A national strike on January 29, 1997 prevented the BSP's attempt to form a new cabinet.

Following is the BTA External Service news item of December 28, 1996 on Parliament's sitting at which the Zhan Videnov cabinet was voted out of office:

Parliament Accepts Videnov Cabinet's Resignation

Sofia, December 28 (Ekaterina Kazassova of BTA) - After a two-year rule of the Left, the 240-seat National Assembly accepted the Government's resignation on Saturday by a vote of 211 to 3, with nine abstentions.

The Cabinet's resignation was announced by Prime Minister Videnov at the Socialists' extraordinary congress on December 21 and was officially tendered to the Parliament two days later.

The seventh Bulgarian Government since the beginning of democratic reform in the country in 1989 was in office for nearly two years, the longest term compared to its six predecessors. Videnov's government was formed in late January 1995 after the Socialists won an overwhelming victory in October 1994.

The government's resignation is linked to the current and immediate realities in the country, as well as to the expected important decisions in the financial sphere, outgoing Prime Minister Videnov said in Parliament. In his view the Cabinet's stepping down will allow Parliament to choose the best way for the country's development. The outgoing cabinet is ready to cooperate to the best of its ability with Parliament in making this choice. In early 1997 it will submit the Budget Bill and draft documents on privatization along with Bills on the introduction of a currency board, Videnov said.

"We expect that the new government, which the Left will form as soon as possible, will receive more political will to implement policies for financial stabilization and restructuring," Videnov said in conclusion.

The opposition described the resignation as a necessary but belated step. The leaders of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), the Popular Union and the ethnic Turks' Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) said the Government's resignation was a belated admission of the failure of the Bulgarian Socialist Party to run the country. UDF Leader Ivan Kostov recalled that the opposition described BSP's government as dangerous and harmful for Bulgaria as soon as the first 100 days of Videnov's Cabinet were over. Its resignation is a failure of the platform on which the BSP won the parliamentary elections in 1994, Kostov said. He said it was a populist, unfeasible platform, used by the Socialists only as a means of gaining power.

The resignation of Videnov's Cabinet is a result of intraparty reshuffles and is not linked to a will for dialogue and consensus with the opposition, MRF deputy floor leader Yudjel Atilla said. In his view in the past two years the BSP waged an unprecedented war with the state institutions.

The opposition MPs focused on the grave situation in Bulgaria which, in their view, is a result of the rule of the Left. The Cabinet's forecasts for the 1996 macroeconomic indicators were described as a complete failure. Instead of 25 per cent inflation, 25 per cent annualized base interest rate and an exchange rate of 85 leva to the dollar, as the 1996 Budget Act planned, we are faced with 300 per cent inflation, 560 leva to the dollar and the need to introduce a currency board at the end of 1996, UDF MP Valentin Vassilev said. The mounting internal debt, the collapse of the banking system, the health care system and culture, the withdrawal of foreign investors, the emigration of thousands of Bulgarians over the past year, the dramatic impoverishment of the people - all come to prove the failure of the Left's government, according to the opposition. The only solution, it said, is early parliamentary elections and formation of a democratic majority in the National Assembly.

The Bulgarian Business Bloc (BBB) supported the Cabinet's resignation but said it would give the Left another chance for dialogue, which has not been held for two years.

The Left did not take part in the debate on the resignation. Only the leader of the radical wing of the BSP, Prof. Chavdar Kyuranov, took the floor to warn that no political force would be able to solve the country's problems on its own.

"The resignation of Videnov's cabinet is not an act of evading responsibility. We bear our responsibility and expect to receive a new term of government," the Left's floor leader Krassimir Premyanov said after the vote. In his view, a consensus should be reached for financial stabilization.

The second item on the agenda - a decision obliging the Government to submit the 1997 Budget Bill and related laws by year's end - provoked unexpected debates. The opposition UDF, the Popular Union, the MRF and the BBB walked out and the proposal was carried on the votes of the BSP.

Later on Saturday Parliament's press office said Chairman Blagovest Sendov had sent President Zhelyu Zhelev the decision to accept the resignation of Videnov's Cabinet. Under the Constitution, President Zhelev may take steps towards the formation of a new Cabinet. EK/AM, DD/

19:43:46  28-12-1996 -0-