Friday's Parliament Sitting Called Off Due to Lack of Quorum

UPDATED Friday's Parliament Sitting Called Off Due to Lack of Quorum

Diana Dukovska

Few MPs registered for Parliament's sitting on December 15, 2023 (BTA Photo)

Sofia,

15.12.2023 09:52 | UPDATED 15.12.2023 10:44

(BTA)

Bulgarian Parliament Chairman Rosen Zhelyazkov called off Friday's sitting after two failed attempts to gather a quorum. There were 68 MPs out of 240 in the plenary in the second attempt.

In the first attempt, 65 MPs registered, mostly from the opposition There Is Such a People (TISP), BSP for Bulgaria and Vazrazhdane.

Those three parliamentary groups disrupted Thursday's sitting by blocking access to the rostrum after Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov said this was a way "to show clearly and categorically that they will never tolerate lawlessness and totalitarianism governing our country".

Stanislav Balabanov MP of TISP told reporters the voice of the opposition must and will be heard as early as next week when TISP will halt the "absurd ideas" for revisions of the Constitution with a "normal democratic protest" in plenary. "If there is a sitting devoted to the Constitution next week, you will see a new TISP protest in the plenary hall," he said.

The parliamentary Constitutional Affairs Committee is scheduled to debate the amendments on the weekend.

Balabanov added that TISP would not block the adoption of the 2024 State Budget Bill.

Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Korneliya Ninova accused of hypocrisy the informal power-sharing coalition of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria and GERB-UDF, backed by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). She said that apparently, the budget, pensions and social benefits were not their priority at all, contrary to what they claimed on Thursday.

Both Balabanov and Ninova said Friday's sitting of Parliament failed due to a Christmas party of the MRF.

/DD/