site.btaPM Says He Is Not Giving In to "Arm Twisting", Dares GERB and MRF to Topple Cabinet

Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov Friday said he is not giving in to "arm twisting" and dared GERB and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) to topple the government. "I am not giving in to the arm twisting. GERB and MRF, who have been invariably together as of late, as we all see, have all rights to topple the government. Let them do it," he said during a briefing where reporters asked him about the failure of Parliament to secure quorum for a second day running and put to a vote a motion for a vote of no-confidence in Denkov's Cabinet.

Denkov said: "I am not going to make a single decision that is unwise for the country. The motion for scrapping the [Lukoil] exemption [from the EU ban on Russian oil] over three days is unwise and carries ample risks that have been detailed by various institutions. That motion has no political logic but one: setting political traps."

GERB and MRF are pushing for immediate scrapping of the exemption and hinted that it might cost the government its survival.

The MRF floor leader and most prominent representatives in recent days, Delyan Peevski, said late on Thursday: "I hope that my colleagues [of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria] tonight will read the signs and will not destroy the Euro-Atlantic parliamentary majority, which will threaten the Euro-Atlantic government with the local coalitions they made with Vazrazhdane and the Socialists."