site.btaCC-DB Co-Floor Leader Denkov: Scandals Sought to Divert Attention from Government-related Main Issues

An old tradition is to seek potential scandals to divert the attention from the main issues, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) co-floor leader Nikolay Denkov commented on Bulgarian National Radio on Sunday.  Today's real issues include what the Government's programme will look like, how the teams in the ministries will be formed, how the general decisions will be made, how the relations between the people in the Council of Ministers and the leaders of the parties will be regulated, Denkov said.

He commented on the screenshots shown by MRF - New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski on Saturday of a chat between him and Denkov back when the latter was prime minister; Peevski showed the screenshots in reaction to a statement by Denkov that he did not have Peevski in his list of contacts. Asked if the text messages were real, Denkov replied: "That does not matter at all. In fact, these text messages show one thing, that Peevski is always trying to impose his demands and options for a solution. There is nothing special in these text messages." "It is important to understand that he will continue to call the current ministers in the same way. He has rung previous ministers as well. The question is whether you say no, or let him lead the topics," Denkov added. "Peevski's role was related to securing a two-thirds majority where a qualified majority was needed," Denkov specified, referring to late 2023 when parliamentary support was sought for constitutional changes.

According to him, the formation of the new regular government hast put an end only to one stage of the political crisis in the country. "For the first time in a long time, GERB took direct political responsibility for forming a government," Denkov said. "GERB and Peevski are trying to retain control over the justice system as much as possible," he added.

Denkov also commented on the support of the Democracy, Rights and Freedoms - DRF [close to former MRF honorary chairman Ahmed Dogan] for the new cabinet. "Ahmed Dogan is quite aloof from the decision-making process. He has nothing to do with the distribution of portions, with which he boasted about many years ago," Denkov believes.