site.btaUPDATED 2024 Budget Bill and Corruption Are Deal Breakers in GERB's Involvement in Government

GERB party leader Boyko Borissov identified two reasons that can make GERB leave the government - disagreement with Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) on the 2024 Budget Bill and corruption. Both, he argued, come before GERB's Euro-Atlantic ideology.

On Saturday, GERB held a national meeting to decide whether to continue to support the government. The meeting brought together all of GERB's municipal mayors, regional governors and MPs.

Borissov said that Euro-Atlanticism underlies the fact that GERB has not stated firmly if it will leave the "assemblage". "The world is so complicated at the moment: the war in Ukraine, [the war] in Israel, tension on many fronts," the GERB leader said. The only good thing about this government is that it maintains a clear direction for Bulgaria's future, he added "This [Euro-Atlanticism] is the only thing that keeps us there. Everything else goes against our party ideology," Borissov stressed.

"I think that the highest degree of corruption has been observed in the petroleum industry and everything related to it in the past year and a half. Who, how and why? We will wait for it to be investigated," the GERB leader said.

Speaking before the meeting in Veliko Tarnovo, he said that GERB will vote in favour of the provisions of the 2024 State Budget Bill related to the funds earmarked for financial assistance to municipalities only if they include financing for the most urgent municipal projects.

"We have to convince our people that there is a reason to stay in this assemblage. We have dealt with the Euro-Atlantic issues", Borissov said, adding that everything GERB has done so far was to make sure that Bulgaria does not stray from its Euro-Atlantic orientation.

"Assemblage" is often used in reference to the government of CC-DB and GERB, formed on a rotating basis after the parliamentary elections on April 2.

Commenting on the Finance Ministry's proposal to spend over BGN 1 billion on municipal projects in 2024, Borissov said he could not understand why this amount should be BGN 1 billion when there is a gross domestic product of BGN 200 billion.

Borissov added that GERB mayors will not raise taxes in their municipalities.