site.btaKiril Petkov: CC-DB Not Afraid of Early Elections

Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Co-leader Kiril Petkov said here on Friday that his coalition is not afraid of early elections.

Petkov was responding to a statement by GERB leader Boyko Borissov earlier in the day that unless CC-DB accepts GERB's condition to keep the foreign affairs portfolio in the post-rotation cabinet, early parliamentary elections will ensue.

Petkov went even further, describing the early elections threat as "a lack of statesmanship" and "an absolutely unproductive kind of selfishness" at this point of the talks between the partners in the ruling coalition.

He said that he does not set conditions but would not give in to conditions set by anybody else. "As far as we are concerned, this kind of red lines won's work. We have never yielded to threats," Petkov pointed out. "The point is to be able to continue the dialogue on which all Bulgaria relies," he added.

The CC-DB Co-leader explained why his parliamentary group insists on taking over the office of foreign minister, which is currently held by GERB's Mariya Gabriel.   

"The prime minister is responsible for all ministries. When it comes to EU decisions, the PM meets with the rest of the PMs at a European Council, and the real key decisions are made there. As we have promised, GERB will get the top job of the land, and it is precisely the prime minister that mans Bulgaria's outlet to Europe and the rest of the world,"  Petkov argued.

He insisted that considering that the prime minister, who has the final say on Bulgaria's foreign policy, will be GERB's Gabriel, CC-DB need the foreign minister's post as "a second guarantor and a second voice to the outside world" because having no voice and no outlet results in an asymmetry that makes the "very sensitive" governance structure unstable and volatile instead of balancing it.

Asked whether they would agree to another GERB nominee for foreign minister as a precondition for the Cabinet's rotation, Petkov noted that Mariya Gabriel and Nikolay Denkov are a functioning team that has worked in harmony so far and questioned the sense of taking on board one more person who is unfamiliar with their programme and work.   

"If they [GERB] realize that the best option would be for Gabriel and Denkov to rotate in this way once every nine months in the next iteration and probably the further iterations, too, this is a way to demonstrate unity to the rest of the world instead of parading new faces every nine months and to have a normal stable State," Petkov argued.