site.btaGERB to Not Support Government Proposed under Second Exploratory Mandate

GERB remains at the position expressed clearly by leader Boyko Borissov that the party will not support a government proposed under the second and third exploratory mandate, Zhecho Stankov MP of GERB-UDF told journalists on Friday. Another MP of GERB-UDF, Delyan Dobrev, commented that he has no information about a change in GERB's position as a result of the situation in the last days.

Dobrev was referring to the rift in the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), which has led to the expulsion of 17 MPs and thus to the MRF no longer being the parliamentary group to receive the second cabinet-forming mandate under the Constitution. Instead, President Rumen Radev next week will hand the mandate to Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) as the new second biggest parliamentary group in the 50th National Assembly.  

Asked if GERB would hold talks with CC-DB, Dobrev told journalists: "Personally, I would not talk with them, but there is a negotiation team who you should ask." Stankov's reply was: "It is up to the party's bodies to decide, but I am saying this again: we cannot possibly support either a second or a third mandate."