site.btaUPDATED Democratic Bulgaria Co-leader Ivanov: GERB-UDF Must Answer Whether Reforms Will Continue or No Point in Having Cabinet

Yes, Bulgaria Chair and Democratic Bulgaria co-leader Hristo Ivanov said Saturday that if a clear answer is not received on the weekend from GERB-UDF on whether the reforms will continue, there is no point in [their joint governance] continuing. "The task is quite simple and we can deal with it in the time we have," he stressed during his speech at his party's Third National Conference in Sofia.

Yes, Bulgaria is part of the power-sharing Democratic Bulgaria (DB) coalition. DB co-leader Atanas Atanassov and Continue the Change (CC) Co-chairs Assen Vassilev and Kiril Petkov were guests at the conference.

CC-DB and GERB-UDF have scheduled negotiations on government rotation on the weekend after nine months of power sharing.

Ivanov underlined that the only way to make the perception that there is no desire for substantive reforms disappear is to sign a detailed document with GERB-UDF that guarantees voters that there will be reforms. Only in this situation it makes sense to have a Cabinet, he explained.

"We must learn to build bridges, but also to defend our positions. And we can do this together. We have learned our lessons," Ivanov addressed the participants in the forum.

"The task of the conference is to prepare for the next horizons, for what we want to happen in the next 9 months," he announced. The conference should lay the foundation for a new political platform, choose a European political family that Yes Bulgaria should become part of, and formulate the organizational tasks.

According to Ivanov, the best European family would be the European People's Party, where their coalition partners from the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria are also members.