On Tuesday, Bulgaria took the next step in the constitutional procedure for government formation, getting even closer to early elections.
Possible early national elections will be this country's sixth since April 2021. After April of 2021, there were early parliamentary elections in July 2021, November 2021, October 2022 and April 2023.
Here is how events played out on Tuesday, in this order:
In Parliament
On 226 votes with nobody voting against and only one abstention from CC-DB, Parliament voted to adopt a resolution that the first mandate for forming a government with Mariya Gabriel of GERB as Prime Minister has not succeeded.
The draft resolution was moved by GERB on Monday after Gabriel sent a letter to the legislature to tell them that she was withdrawing from the government forming procedure and would not propose a cabinet.
Some statements during the debate in the plenary hall were strong-worded, some were outright derisive of CC-DB.
Pavela Mitova of There Is Such a People said her party had warned GERB, based on its experience, that dialogue with CC-DB is impossible "because they are feel entitled, they feel everything belongs to them by law". "They are incapable of compromise and partnership because they believe themselves to be guardians of moral values. [...] You said a lot of things and they were downright lies: to your partners, yourself, the Bulgarian people, which is why now you have to bear the consequences," she said.
Socialist leader Korneliya Ninova said her party is not going to participate in talks on the second mandate (which will go to CC-DB in their capacity as the second largest group in Parliament) and does not want the third, and last, mandate either. She also said: "This is a natural ending to an unnatural coalition. A coalition that was conceived viciously because those who wanted to fight the mafia, to clean up the backstage, to deal with state capture, embraced the mafia. Instead of cleaning it up, they offered to share the state with it. All this was dressed up in beautiful words about Euro-Atlanticism, higher goals, only you were not driven by higher goals but by lower passions. A government can't last long when it is driven by base emotions - one party's fear of retribution and the other party's greed for power. The result is what we see today". Ninova said that her party has the moral right to judge today because it "did not give in to temptations, to backroom deals" and its goal has been throughout to fight state capture.
CC-DB co-leader Kiril Petkov said that "there is something very simple put on the table: an agreement that demands reform of the justice system, real reform, through a transparent process, not on paper". "The most important thing is to do every action not out of fear, greed, but out of a sense of duty," he said.
Tsoncho Ganev of Vazrazhdane said that "Bulgarian people are not tired of going to elections but are disgusted of what they have been seeing in recent years: shameful coalitions and unprincipled bargaining, and today has been the climax of what we have seen in the last 35 years". Addressing CC-DB, he said: "You have reached the bottom and continued digging, coming to a point where in the plenary you are imploring [GERB leader Boyko] Borissov to do you the honour and take whatever he pleases so that you can continue with the Recovery and Resilience Plan and secure hundreds of euros in subsidies for your sponsors." He went on to say that CC-DB are the only ones who are afraid of elections "because they are afraid of their own voters, of those who think because these people won't back them any longer".
The CC-DB proposal
The CC-DB proposal to GERB-UDF was read out in the plenary by co-floor leader Atanas Atanasov. He said the coalition confirms its “readiness to fulfill the second government-forming mandate as a national one”. “That means a common mandate with the parliamentary group of GERB-UDF,” Atanasov said.
The statement went on: "We are ready to do this while observing the commitments we made mutually nine months ago. This can happen if the following framework is observed: the two group's floor leaders should sign the agreement containing guarantees for reforms in the Judiciary, the regulators and security services, with clear implementation deadlines; the prime minister should be a mutually acceptable figure nominated by GERB-UDF; the current structure of the Council of Ministers has to be preserved.”
Atanasov explained that this is not an invitation for additional negotiations but a proposal with an expression of readiness to fulfill the commitments they made publicly nine months ago. "Our duty to Bulgaria makes us be responsible and use the last chance the Constitution provides us with and make a last attempt to not throw the State into a crisis and a series of elections," he added.
Atanasov underscored that if GERB-UDF refuse the proposal, CC-DB will consider its commitments observed and will return the second cabinet-forming mandate to the President unfulfilled. He said that they expect an official response by the date on which the second cabinet mandate is to be handed by the President, which is Wednesday.
GERB’s reply
The official response came immediately: GERB-UDF turned down the proposal. "GERB-UDF is not going to participate in attempts to form a cabinet on a second or third mandate. Let Bulgarian people decide via elections who and how should run Bulgaria," reads a statement undersigned by GERB leader Boyko Borissov and the party's deputy floor leaders Temenuzhka Petkova, Denitsa Sacheva and Raya Nazaryan, and made public by the party press office.
CC-DB's proposal was that the two group's floor leaders should sign an agreement setting out guarantees for reforms in the judiciary, the regulators and security services, with clear implementation deadlines; a prime minister who is a mutually acceptable figure nominated by GERB-UDF; and the current structure of the Council of Ministers remaining the same as in the Nikolay Denkov government.
In its reply to the CC-DB offer, GERB offer their side of the story about the government talks with a detailed account of all the compromises they made in the name of the national interests. "But that constant pressure on us, this political extortion had to end. And the end came with dignity as [Prime Minister-designate] Mariya Gabriel submitted a statement to Parliament and the GERB-UDF group that she withdrew from the efforts to form a government," the statement says.
"Today it is cynical to be threatened with the imperfections of the revised Constitution in the part concerning the caretaker government - be threatened by the very same people who prepared the revisions and put brutal pressure on all members of the legal committee and the entire Parliament to have it adopted before the end of last year," Borissov said:
GERB-UDF finds it inadequate to propose using the second mandate - CC-DB's - with the participation of GERB-UDF and its Prime Minister-designate Mariya Gabriel or Parliament leader Rosen Zhelyazkov. "After they intentionally torpedoed the fragile balance there was, trampled on the confidence we tried to build with them, and then they tried to put us in the conditions of heavy international pressure, CC-DG cannot expect of us to partake in this ruthless abuse of the just expectations of the Bulgarian people for security, stability and dignity in their life in Bulgaria," the statement goes.
As nobody has indicated any support for a CC-DB government, GERB's decision means that the procedure will come to a third mandate that the President will offer to one of the smaller parliamentary parties of his choice, and BSP for Bulgaria, MRF and There Is Such a People have already said that they would not even try, while Vazrazhdane said that while they are ready to propose a government, but are aware that it would not be supported by the legislature.
MRF’s Peevski: “Clearly Snap Parliamentary Elections Are Coming Up”
MRF Co-leader Delyan Peevski told journalists in Parliament that "it is clear that snap parliamentary elections are coming up". "Everything else that is happening is a farce and an anguish", he added. He called for politicians “to preserve their dignity and see how much confidence Bulgarian society has in them” in elections.
Peevski reiterated that he is ruling out success with a possible third government mandate, which his party or any other of the minor parties in Parliament will likely get. He endorses the position of Boyko Borissov that government formation with CC-DB’s mandate is impossible.
Peevski said that MRF was standing aside from the negotiations between CC-DB and GERB-UDF, but "evidently, they did not get along".
According to Peevski, CC-DB wasted all chances to avoid snap elections. He said that the coalition had gone “over the top with their demands, which are disproportionate to their weight in Parliament”.
What’s next
Under Article 99 of the Constitution, President Radev Wednesday will entrust the task of forming a Cabinet to a Prime Minister-designate nominated by the second largest parliamentary group, CC-DB.
After accepting the mandate, they will have a week to form a government (which they might not take as they have already said that if GERB turn down their proposal, they will consider the second mandate a failure).
In that case the President will ask one of the minor parliamentary groups to try to form a government. The Constitution leaves it to the President to choose to which party to offer the mandate.
Also, the Constitution does not set a time limit for the third mandate.
MRF and BSP for Bulgaria have already said that they would return unused a government mandate, should the President decide to offer it to them.
In that case, the President, following consultations with the parliamentary groups will appoint a caretaker government headed by one of the following individuals: the Parliament Chair, the central bank governor or vice governor, the National Audit Office head or their deputy, the National Ombudsman or their deputy. The main task of the caretaker government will be to organize free and fair elections, which will take place within two months.
/MY/
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