site.btaPolitical Shuttles in Parliament: What Has Been Accomplished So Far

Parallel talks are underway in Bulgaria’s new Parliament among the political groups. GERB-UDF and Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) are each meeting with other parties.

The first meetings were held Tuesday by CC-DB as they seek support for a “sanitary cordon” around Delyan Peevski and his MRF-New Beginning coalition, and also for their legislative priorities. Talks took place with MECh, Alliance for Rights and Freedoms of Ahmed Dogan, and There Is Such a People.

GERB-UDF said they would be holding talks to build accord for joint legislative measures. The GERB negotiating team includes Raya Nazaryan, Tomislav Donchev and Rossen Zhelyazkov, and is headed by GERB leader Boyko Borissov.

On Tuesday, CC-DB sent an invitation to talks to GERB-UDF but they turned it down. Borissov explained on Wednesday that “it is not the right approach to send an invitation at 9 in the evening”.

CC-DB co-leader Kiril Petkov commented that by avoiding a meeting GERB leader an impression that they have something to hide.

Early on Wednesday, GERB-UDF started discussing joint action with BSP – United Left. BSP-United Left acting chairman Atanas Zafirov said afterwards that these were not negotiations for forming a government, but a conversation on issues of national significance. Asked to comment possible participation of the Left in a future government, he said that “there are enough Right-wing formations in parliament that can easily form a government”. “If they decide that a future government needs Left policies, we can have dialogue”.

Dragomir Stoynev said that GERB-UDF agreed with the request of the left to postpone the liberalization of the electricity market for household consumers by two years.

The second meeting was with There Is Such a People (TISP). The party’s Deputy Chair Toshko Yordanov told reporters that they did not discuss a cabinet composition and said that the discussion was mostly devoted to the economic situation in the country. "The reason is that the finances are in a terrible state because of the budgets adopted by the previous government, including those with the participation of GERB", Yordanov pointed out. 

After the two meetings, GERB’s leader Boyko Borissov said that “with the configuration in the current Parliament, the small parties are as important as the large party in securing a majority”. He said he offered a pragmatic approach: “policies, people to bear the responsibility via a government and a majority to back the entire legislative programme”.

Borissov argued that the CC-DB proposal to start with a legislative programme is not appropriate because, as seen in previous National Assemblies, such an approach leads to "monsters". “Everyone I talked to this morning puts finance as the biggest problem, as well as the economy and water shortage,” he said.

CC-DB’s talks continued Wednesday with BSP-United Left. CC-DB co-Chair Kiril Petkov told reporters that they had a constructive meeting presented their priorities. At the end of the meeting, CC-DB offered support for the application of BSP - United Left to the Constitutional Court for partial annulment of the vote. Petkov said that the two sides “have starting to consolidate the legislative initiatives on which they agree and identified topics on which consensus will be sought."

Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov commented for the press Wednesday that there are attempts to form a government between GERB, CC-DB and others, for which there is a mathematical possibility.

Kostadinov noted that there were four scenarios on Monday. The first was a government of GERB, MRF - New Beginning and "affiliated parties". The second was GERB, CC-DB and "affiliated parties" without MRF. The third was a cabinet without GERB and MRF, and the fourth was new elections, which Kostadinov did not rule out. After Monday, however, a rift has become visible between Boyko Borissov and MRF - New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski, making the first scenario unrealistic.