site.btaUPDATED President Hands TISP Third Cabinet-forming Mandate, Group to Start Talks with All Parliamentary Forces Tuesday

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev on Monday handed the There Is Such a People (TISP) parliamentary group the third cabinet-forming mandate. TISP are now to propose a prime-minister designate.

TISP floor leader Toshko Yordanov said that they will approach the mandate practically and reasonably. They will hold separate talks with all parliamentary represented parties, including with the independent MPs, starting Tuesday, he added.  TISP understand the responsibility that the President tasks them with by giving them the last exploratory mandate for the formation of a regular government, Yordanov noted.

In his words, to exit the crisis Bulgaria finds itself in, the future government should start with parliamentary support that is as broad as possible. That is important because the government needs legitimacy from society and to solve the current problems. The process will be extremely transparent, before everyone's eyes, Yordanov underscored. That will allow conclusions to be drawn about whether there are responsible politicians in the 50th National Assembly, he added.

President Radev called on TISP to immediately start the talks with the other parliamentary forces, use a constructive and transparent approach, and present the results of the talks within a reasonable period of time. "From the very beginning of this process you have been advocating the need for a regular government and defending the formula for a non-partisan, expert cabinet," Radev told the TISP representatives. "Amid the conflicts between the parties, and the internal party discord among a number of them, you have demonstrated the resilience of your parliamentary group and your positions, and I hope this will help you in the successful implementation of the mandate," he added.

Radev said that is not an easy task and expects TISP to approach it with the same responsibility they have already stated to the public. The third mandate has its specifics because it provides more flexibility and does not oblige to nominate a prime minister-designate today, but to do it at a later stage and after talks with the other parliamentary political forces, Radev said. This is the last chance for the 50th National Assembly to elect a government and not to remain in history without significant achievements, the head of State noted.

At a news briefing later on Monday, Yordanov told journalists that the talks with the parliamentary forces will focus on priorities, problems, the ways and time frame for their solution should an agreement be reached. If there is enough of a majority among the MPs of the 50th National Assembly, the next step will be talks on the government's composition and who will be the people to implement the corresponding programme. In his words, there has not been a single political representative who has not said the country faces specific problems and those should be solved. Every single political party or representative in Parliament has said that snap elections are not the best solution, Yordanov noted.

He expressed the hope that it will become clear by this week's end whether the third mandate can be fulfilled. The negotiation team will include political representatives and experts, he specified. He listed as a priority the legislation related to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan because, in his words, resources will be lost if the corresponding laws are not adopted by the 50th National Assembly.

Asked by BTA how TISP will convince the parliamentary forces on a cabinet when several have already said they will not support a government formed under the third mandate, TISP deputy floor leader Stanislav Balabanov said that now is the time to see whether there are real statespersons, and not party leaders playing their own party games and misleading Bulgarian citizens. It is foolish of party leaders to say publicly that nothing can be done but that in two months, after the elections, they would reach an agreement. "The citizens sent us to take Bulgaria out of the crisis, that is why TISP entered this Parliament: to demonstrate statesmanship and reason," Balanov said.

TISP is the sixth largest group in the 50th National Assembly. They are the third to be mandated to explore options to put together a government, after the largest group, GERB-UDF, picked Rosen Zhelyazkov as their prime minister-designate but his nomination was defeated in a parliamentary vote. On July 22, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, which found themselves to be the second largest group after a rift in the Movement for Rights and Freedoms diminished its size, declined the cabinet-forming mandate right away.

Under the Constitution, if a regular government is not formed under the third mandate, the President has to set a date for early parliamentary elections and appoint a caretaker government to organise them.