site.btaUPDATED Three Opposition Parliamentary Groups Table No Confidence Motion against Denkov Cabinet

Vazrazhdane, BSP for Bulgaria and There Is Such a People (TISP) on Thursday afternoon tabled a motion of no confidence against the Nikolay Denkov Cabinet over the governments' energy sector policy.

The motion, submitted at the National Assembly registry, has been signed by 71 MPs of the three opposition parliamentary groups and by independent MP Radostin Vassilev.

The motion, initiated by Vazrazhdane, is prompted by territorial just transition plans for Bulgaria's coal-producing areas, which the parliamentary opposition sees as devastating for the coal-mining industry and the coal-fired power plants. The Cabinet submitted the plans to the European Commission on September 30.

"Just as the powerholders are united in the person of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, GERB-UDF and Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria, so the opposition is united, too," said Tsoncho Ganev MP of Vazrazhdane.
 
He argued that the motion is substantiated by "ironclad arguments". "Ultimately, the no confidence motion is not an end intself, it is intended to defence the national interests," the MP said. In his words, the policy that is being pursued will ruin the Bulgarian power industry and, hence, will ruin the Bulgarian economy, too. "We, as consumers, will be doomed to pay far higher electricity bills," he added. 

Georgi Svilenski MP of BSP for Bulgaria said that Thursday saw "the beginning of the end of this harmful governance for Bulgaria. A governance that killed Bulgarian agriculture, a governance that buried Bulgarian defence, a governance that is burying the Bulgarian energy sector," the MP argued.

TISP Floor Leader Toshko Yordanov said that "the incumbent government is criminal and was conceived in sin." "This government has already lost citizens' confidence, so it is censured in reality, the rest is a matter of technical procedures and time," he added.

Earlier in the day, BSP for Bulgaria Floor Leader Korneliya Ninova commented that the ruling majority "is indeed crossing out the Bulgarian power industry." "The least we can ask for a motion of no confidence and shouldering political responsibility for what is going on," she insisted.

Powerholders React

"I expect a political debate during an election campaign," Prime Minister Denkov said in a BTA interview in Granada, Spain, on Thursday evening, asked for comment on the no confidence motion.

"This no confidence motion does not help anybody," Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria Co-floor Leader Kiril Petkov commented to journalists in Parliament. "Vazrazhdane and There Is Such a People are very destructive, all they do is trying to make a problem out of a non-existent problem," Petkov said. "I think the Council of Ministers is functioning very well at a time that is very difficult for all Bulgarians," he pointed out.

"Speaking of rotation, we should be clear that not a single cabinet member can be replaced without it, such replacement requires the consent of both Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria," Petkov explained.

On Thursday morning, GERB leader Boyko Borissov told journalists that the Cabinet will survive the no confidence vote. "GERB will not be the party that will bring this government down," he said.

Borissov pleged that the ruling majority will keep its law-making schedule in Parliament and that the government should do the same "instead of plunging us into a grain crisis first and into an energy crisis next." "If we work well, we can serve out a full term in office," the GERB leader believes.

Asked which cabinet members do not enjoy his confidence, Borissov said that in certain sectors the names of the ministers are unknown because they do not work, nothing has happened in entire sectors such as, say, sports. "I can list another seven or eight ministries," he added. The GERB leader recalled that a prime minister rotation is due in March 2024, GERB-UDF will assess the ministers' performance together with Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria and, "if there is a better option, it will be taken."

"The no confidence motion is a waste of parliamentary time. It diverts us uselessly from our [October 29 local election] campaigns," Delyan Peevksi MP of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) commented to journalists in Parliament. "The motion is futile and will not result in anything," he added

Asked whether the MRF has any criticism about the performance of certain cabinet members, Peevski explained that they we a lot of things but should better reserve their assessment for when the prime minister rotates. "If the government honours its commitments to the people, we will back them, we back them for the agreement with the coal miners, we wait for them to honour their commitments," the MP stressed. 

National Assembly Chair Rosen Zhelyazkov announced that the debate on the no confidence motion against the Denkov Cabinet will take place next Thursday, October 12, and a vote on the motion will be taken 24 hours after the close of the debate.