The National Assembly accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov on Wednesday with 216 votes in favour.
Denkov's resignation was submitted to the Parliament Registry on Tuesday. The Prime Minister resigned as part of an arrangement made between the two largest groups in the incumbent Parliament, CC-DB and GERB-UDF, according to which Denkov and Mariya Gabriel of GERB-UDF were to rotate as prime minister and deputy prime minister over a nine-month period, starting with Denkov. Subject to this understanding, the two parliamentary coalitions plus the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) voted the Denkov Cabinet into office on June 6, 2023. The rotation was due to take place on March 6, 2024.
In accordance with a provision of the Constitution, the Council of Ministers led by Denkov will continue to perform its functions until a new government is elected and will ensure continuity in governance.
National Assembly Chair Rosen Zhelyazkov noted that, per the Constitution, with the acceptance of Denkov's resignation, the President, after consulting the parliamentary groups, will assign a candidate for Prime Minister, nominated by the largest parliamentary group, to form a government.
Discussion
During the debates, Continue the Change Co-Chair Kiril Petkov stated: "Every agreement is a promise. A good promise is one that is kept. Nine months ago we promised that a resignation would be submitted on this day. Nikolay Denkov kept this promise. And today we submitted it for a vote in the plenary hall. There are no such examples in the history of Bulgaria: For the first time, a prime minister resigned because he made a promise".
Petkov listed the things that happened during the Cabinet's administration: changes to the constitution, joining the Schengen area, investigation of the prosecutor general, adopted anti-corruption law, a budget with a 3% deficit and "preservation of the Bulgarian Black Sea".
"The only changes that are irreversible are those that change the expectations and fears of the Bulgarian people," said Petkov. "Today, Bulgarians expect to have a prime minister who is educated, pro-European and balanced. They expect no one in power to have a monopoly," he added.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) criticized the management of Denkov's Cabinet and the majority in Parliament. BSP leader Korneliya Ninova said thet the rulers "achieved a mathematical sum of the number of MPs", called this "the moral low of politics", because "people who denied each other got together, they did it in the name of power, they were brought together by fear and greed."
Ninova noted that there were five priorities in the Denkov/Gabriel Cabinet's management programme. She noted that the entry into the Schengen are was only partial, "fulfilled at 3%", entry into the Eurozone is impossible from January 1, 2025, due to objective reasons, the Recovery and Resilience Plan plan regarding the Geen Deal has not been developed, there is no clarity about what would happen to those working in the Maritsa East TPP and Maritsa East Mines.
Commenting on the legislative programme, Ninova noted that by December 2023, 80 bills were envisaged and 11 laws were adopted. There is still no Judiciary Act, no Anti-corruption Commission, no step forward in terms of real judicial reform, explained Ninova, calling everything done so far a " division of portions". "This government must go, it was created to control the State," she stressed.
There Is Such a People (TISP) Floor Leader Toshko Yordanov said that "what is happening today should have happened nine months ago, because there has never been such a pathetic administration in our history".
Yordanov pondered who from Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) proposed to complete the government rotation on the national holiday March 3, and noted that Finance Minister Assen Vassilev was "perhaps the most harmful thing in the last 35 years".
Yordanov argued that the laws on the Recovery and Resilience Plan were adopted so that companies close to the rulers could receive the tranches.
The TISP Floor leader noted that CC-DB are responsible for "cleaning up" GERB leader Boyko Borissov and that in turn, now GERB-UDF and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms are responsible for "CC-DB's nonsense".
"In the past 35 years, Bulgaria has become the poorest country in the European Union, misery has permanently settled in our country and this is a consequence of 35 years of promoting Euro-Atlantic values", said Vazrazhdane Deputy Floor Leader and Deputy national Assembly Chair Tsoncho Ganev during the discussion.
Ganev added that before Euro-Atlantic pseudo-values poisoned the Bulgarian public, Bulgaria was a space industry power, had transoceanic fishing, had food sovereignty, and Bulgarian agricultural production was sufficient to ensure the food needs of the population.
He added that people stopped believing because they were repeatedly lied to by political charlatans, such as CC-DB and their mentors and superiors from MRF and GERB.
"...One of the nuclear reactors is already running on American fuel, which is not exported anywhere. Bulgaria is rapidly moving towards becoming a nuclear dump. Bulgaria emptied its ammunition depots, Bulgaria gave military equipment to Ukraine, Bulgaria gave away missiles that ensured the safety of our country, and political assassinations since during the rule of a criminal majority became a daily occurrence. We have everything else, but not morality in governance", Tsoncho Ganev also stated.
/RY/
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