site.btaPM Denkov to GERB-UDF: Let's Vote Through Gabriel Cabinet without Reshuffle

Outgoing Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov on Sunday called on the GERB-UDF leadership to keep their word, sign the agreement on governance, and vote into office a cabinet with Mariya Gabriel as prime minister and foreign minister without any changes in the complement of the Council of Ministers, instead of "throwing the country into chaos".

Denkov's televised statement comes in the wake of an announcement, made earlier in the day by Gabriel, that she will withdraw her candidacy for the prime ministership from Parliament as the negotiations on further joint governance between GERB-UDF and Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria have failed to produce a result.

Denkov reminded the leadership of his coalition's power-sharing partner of the promise given nine months ago: a rotation limited to him and Gabriel as head of government. He said that he himself kept his promise, and his resignation was accepted on March 6. He specified that the two coalitions had agreed on a cabinet term of 18 months until the end of 2024, with a mid-term PM shift and replacement of ministers by mutual consent only.

"The negotiations on changes in the Council of Ministers complement showed that we lack mutual agreement on replacement of ministers," the PM said. "In parallel with that, in the course of the negotiations we drew up an agreement on the reforms in the judicial system, the regulators and the [security] services. That agreement has been published, and we are ready to sign it," Denkov said.

In his address, he pointed out that the cabinet formed nine months ago had achieved a lot. "Besides everything else, two days ago the European Council gave a clear sign that we are making confident progress towards the Eurozone, and we stand very strong chances of extending our Schengen area entry to land borders before the end of this year," the PM said.