site.btaUPDATED Delyan Peevski Says President Violated Constitution "Once Again" by Excluding His Parliamentary Group from Political Consultations

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) - New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski commented Wednesday that President Rumen Radev violated the Constitution "once again" by excluding Peevski's group in the new legislature from consultations with the parliamentary groups. Peevski also said that the head of State is to blame for "the disintegration of the country" and that the presidential administration is busy with putting together "Rumen Radev's new [political] project".

The consultations are held by the President before he offers the largest group a mandate to try to form a government.

The Presidential Press Secretariat announced Tuesday that the President has decided not to hold consultations with MRF - New Beginning. Shortly before that, Peevski said that while he would not be going to consultations with the head of State, other representatives of his group would be.

The consultations with the parliamentary parties are regulated by Article 99 of the Constitution, where Para (1) says, "Following consultations with the parliamentary groups, the President shall appoint the Prime Minister-designate nominated by the party holding the highest number of seats in the National Assembly to form a government."

Asked whether he believes government formation is possible, he said "it is the job of the first political force to organize the government, and to determine the partners".

“I would like to ask the following question - if tomorrow MRF-New Beginning is the first or second force in elections, will Radev not give us a mandate? … He is making anarchy, this man is an anarchist," Delyan Peevski further commented.

He went on to say: "The honest thing to do, if he [the President] is going to have a political project, is not to wait to have a Cabinet to his liking but to leave the presidential administration now - and so should Vice President Iliana Iotova, so that we can have 2-in-1 [presidential and parliamentary] elections.  I am waiting for him to come down and lose his immunity because now I ask the prosecution service and the anti-corruption commission but they say nothing. Are they afraid of him, I wonder?"

He dismissed his opponents' allegations that he controls the prosecution service.  "The prosecution service is independent. I am not happy with their work. I have been saying for a year now that they do nothing."