site.btaFloor Leader Says TISP Group "Unblocked" Parliament as a Step towards Getting Third Cabinet-Forming Mandate

There Is Such a People (TISP) Floor Leader Toshko Yordanov Thursday said the parliamentary group did not offer support but unblocked Parliament so that the President could give TISP the third cabinet-forming mandate. Interviewed by bTV, he was commenting on the election of GERB-UDF MP Raya Nazaryan as National Assembly Chair earlier in the day.

Yordanov said TISP did not back the nominee on Wednesday because the MPs were waiting for leader Slavi Trifonov's statement. He said the party, which has 16 MPs in the 240-seat Parliament, would back neither the first nor the second mandate, which are bound by Constitution to go to the two largest groups, GERB-UDF and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. TISP wants to get the third mandate so as to form an expert cabinet, said Trifonov.

Under the Constitution, the President presents the third mandate to a parliamentary political force at his discretion. If the third mandate fails, a caretaker government is appointed and snap parliamentary elections are scheduled within two months.

If President Rumen Radev is to present a mandate for government formation, Parliament must have a Chairperson, Deputy Chairs and parliamentary groups. Yordanov admitted there is no guarantee that the third mandate will go to TISP.

He added: "There are two options: we either go to elections straight away if the President mandates another party, or TISP proposes an expert cabinet and if the parties support it, there will not be snap elections; if they don't, snap elections will have to be held."

If TISP gets a mandate to form a cabinet, it will be an expert one, not a GERB cabinet, Yordanov said. "We will seek support from all parties because they all have experts who can do the job," he added.