site.btaParliament Faced with Difficult Decisions

The first session of the 51st National Assembly is on Monday (November 11) and days before its start the questions about the future majorities, priorities and leadership are more than the answers, Dnevnik writes. The political formations also expect this Parliament to reach an impasse in the very first decision it must take - the election of its Chair. This stage has traditionally been seen as an indicator of possible governing coalitions and has already been put forward by the winner of the election, GERB, as a precondition for possible government negotiations. It is a prerequisite for the start of the procedure of forming a government - only after the election of Parliament Chair are the parliamentary groups announced, and then the President hands them the government forming mandates.

Since the 2023 constitutional changes, the post of Parliament Chair has also become a potential steppingstone to the executive branch, as he or she is an eligible candidate for caretaker Prime Minister. Some of the candidates informally discussed in parliamentary groups are already familiar to the public, having held or been nominated for the position of "first among equals", but there are also new proposals. The choice will be complex, as in the highly fragmented National Assembly it will require the votes of at least three parliamentary groups.