GERB: "If Government Is to Make Sense, We Need to Adopt a Number of Bills to Make Up for Delay with Recovery Plan and Ensure Profound Judicial Reform"

UPDATED GERB: "If Government Is to Make Sense, We Need to Adopt a Number of Bills to Make Up for Delay with Recovery Plan and Ensure Profound Judicial Reform"

GERB-UDF floor leader Dessislava Atanassova addresses the opening of Parliament's autumn session, Sofia, September 1, 2023 (BTA Photo)

Sofia,

01.09.2023 09:33 | UPDATED 01.09.2023 10:30

(BTA)

Addressing Parliament in a declaration on behalf of her GERB-UDF group, Dessislava Atanassova said that her party remains committed to its promises to voters and believes that the first precondition for meeting these promises is to have a working government. She added that if this government and parliamentary majority is to make sense, "we need to adopt a number of bills to make up for the delay in the Recovery [and Resilience] Plan, to reform the anti-corruption commission and to ensure a profound judicial reform".

Atanassova went back to the time the government of Nikolay Denkov was formed and the compromise GERB made, being the largest political party in Parliament, to agree to be part of a government formed by the second largest, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria. She said that compromise was not an act of weakness but of strength.

She said: "We backed Denkov's cabinet fully aware of the scale of compromise for GERB-UDF. We put our partisan interests behind and it is the only reason Bulgaria has a regular government now. Our commitment was to restore political stability, stop the war of the institutions and end Bulgaria's international isolation. We have not forgotten our commitment to voters and we believe that the first prerequisite in meeting this commitment is to have a working government. But for this government and majority to make sense, we need to adopt a number of bills to make up for the delay in the recovery plan, reform the anti-corruption commission and ensure a profound judicial reform."

As part of that, she vowed commitment to GERB-UDF's promise to be an active part of a majority for constitutional changes.

Furthermore, she said that one of her party's key political intentions as the 2024 budget is being drafted, is to ensure predictability for people and businesses.

"For GERB-UDF, power is not a goal but a means to solving problems. We have put behind our party interests but we will not accept unconditionally every decision of every ministers," she said.

She also said that GERB want to make sure that party affiliation be not the key consideration in personnel policy.

She said that they don’t seek revenge on the political opponents and want to see the Bulgarian society overcome the dividing lines. "We need a positive agenda, we need to start hearing the different opinion and understand its reasoning. That calls for less arrogance and a sense of infallibility," she added.

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