site.btaUPDATED PM: Ministers Should Continue Their Work after Rotation, Replacements Will Be Few

The government will not compromise with the composition of the Council of Ministers because of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) during the March rotation in the cabinet, said Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov on Wednesday in a Q&A session with members of the public on Facebook on the occasion of his cabinet's seventh month in office.

"If we want MRF to vote for this government, we must also go through talks with the MRF leadership," Denkov noted and added that "the broader the support for the government in parliament, the better."

The Prime Minister said that ministers will be replaced during the rotation only if both he and Deputy Prime Minister Mariya Gabriel agree to it. "The ministers should continue their work to try to carry through what they have started. They will be replaced only if it is really necessary, the replacements will be few," Denkov pointed out.

He said that it was important that every minister be evaluated according to the work he has done. One or another media appearance cannot be the basis for changing a minister, Denkov stressed. He noted that he had already gathered the information, had an idea of how each minister was doing and in the coming days this information would be shared with Mariya Gabriel and the party leaders. "When Mariya Gabriel and I clarify what the modified composition of the Council of Ministers should look like, we will go to the party leaders to ask for their support," Denkov said.

He underlined that there was no change in the agreement which envisages him and Gabriel to swap seats as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. "In the beginning we proposed that the second Deputy Prime Minister should be Assen Vassilev. Then GERB did not agree, now we see that they are making such a proposal," Denkov pointed out. If they insist on it, there is nothing wrong with Vassilev being the second Deputy Prime Minister, Denkov noted.

Asked whether Nikola Minchev or Atanas Atanassov should be National Assembly Chair, the Prime Minister said that he had no doubt that both of them could handle this role. Minchev has already been National Assembly Chair, Atanassov has vast parliamentary experience, he stressed. "We have to look at what are the other tasks we have to perform as parliamentary groups and politicians. European elections are coming, one possible leader of the list is Nikola Minchev, but if he enters this role, it is not compatible with the other," said Denkov.

The prime minister said that the state should continue to look for more experts than political figures for such positions as a constitutional judge. It is much better for them to have a much broader experience in the judiciary and not to appear to be strongly politically coloured, because that is what is expected of these experts - to be politically independent and with very broad professional experience, Denkov stressed. 

In response to a question about President Rumen Radev, the Prime Minister said that the head of State referred the constitutional amendments to the Constitutional Court for evaluation and there is nothing wrong with that, it is normal. "But he is attacking not so much the justice system reform, but the restriction of his rights in the part about the caretaker government, because these changes were made to avoid the possibility of having a one-man rule for a long period of time," Denkov said. He described as "scandalous" the way Radev is doing this and the language he is using because under the constitution the President is supposed to embody the unity of the nation. "He behaves like an opposition leader. If he wants to use this language, he should make a party, win the elections and change the Constitution," Denkov underlined.