site.btaUPDATED MECh Party Calls for Resignation of Parliament Chair over Dissolution of Its Group in Legislature, Threatens Civil Disobedience

The MECh party Friday called for the resignation of Parliament Chair Nataliya Kiselova over the dissolution of its group in the National Assembly and threatened civil disobedience. "If the Mech group does not exist on Wednesday, we will be putting up blockades," MECh leader Radostin Vasilev told reporters in Parliament.

He said that they would ask the prosecution service to probe Kiselova for violation of Article 282 of the Penal Code for violating or failing to perform her official duties.

In the early hours on Friday, the Parliament leader announced that the MECh parliamentary group ceased to exist after the resignation of its member Samuil Slavov left it with nine members, one fewer than the minimum required for the formation of a parliamentary group. 

In Vasilev's words, Kiselova's announcement "has no legal value". 

The parliamentary rules of organization say that once a parliamentary group ceases to exist, its members should become independent MPs. They may not join another group and may not set up a new group.

On Thursday, the Central Election Commission declared Plamen Petkov, nominated by MECh, as an MP. Petkov is to replace Slavov in the National Assembly but has not taken the oath of office yet.

Vasilev threatened "a Serbian scenario in Bulgaria" in the wake of the Parliament Chair's decision and said that "there won't be a Parliament sitting until justice prevails and Kiselova admits that what she did was stupid". "We will physically stop them," he added.

He was adamant that the MECh group still exists and would have filled up its composition to 11 members but Kiselova "did not allow" the swearing-in of two MPs: Ivan Ivanov and Plamen Petkov.

He also said that Kiselova determined Wednesday for the wearing-in of the two and an hour before that was due to happen, she announced the dissolution of the MECh group.

"That was like her own decision, absolutely unlawful, under the pressure of BSP, There Is Such a People and GERB, I hear," said the MECh leader.

Vasilev recalled that according to a Constitutional Court decision (following a recount of votes and recalculation of seats after the October 2024 elections), three MECh deputies were to leave Parliament and two others to enter. Until the swearing-in of the two new MPs, the parliamentary group has nine members but no one has left MECh, and the period until the wearing-in cannot be used by the Parliament Chair to say that a group has dissolved, the MECh leader explained.

He argued that a parliamentary group is dissolved only when MPs leave it to become independent, which is not the case with MECh.

Parliament's rules of organization say in Para 3 and 4 of Article 12 that "when the number of the Members of the National Assembly in a Parliamentary Group has fallen below the minimum set, it shall cease to exist" and that MPs from a Parliamentary group that has ceased to exist "shall become Members of the National Assembly who do not participate in any Parliamentary Group and cannot join as members another Parliamentary Group, neither form a new Parliamentary Group".

MECh intend to rally support among the other parliamentary groups for ousting Kiselova over incompetence.