site.btaDeputy PM, Regional Development Minister: Latest No-Confidence Motion Offers No Real Alternative

The latest motion of no confidence does not offer any real alternative, Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov told reporters here on Saturday. He commented that most of the issues cited in the reasoning for the motion happened seven or eight years ago, while this government has been in power for seven months. According to him, the reasoning include things from seven or eight years ago.

On Friday, MPs of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and Morality, Unity, Honour (MECh) submitted a motion of no confidence in the Rosen Zhelyazkov Cabinet over "failure of internal order and security, justice, and state capture". This is the fifth vote of no confidence in the Zhelyazkov Cabinet. 

"On a day like today, we know that there will be a protest in Sofia, it is good to see the balance - on the one hand, the government that works, the authority that does not just spend money but generates it, provides additional funds, makes efforts to ensure that these additional funds reach the people, and on the other hand a weak, absolutely ineffective opposition that offers absolutely no alternative except destruction, shouting, screaming, and all kinds of attempts to destabilize the situation," Zafirov added.

"Early parliamentary elections mean no budget procedure, no state budget, no funds for municipal investment programmes, and ultimately absolute uncertainty and inaction on the part of the State for many years to come. These are the two alternatives at the moment. In other words, this motion of no confidence does not offer any real alternative," added the Deputy Prime Minister.

"This government may be difficult, it may creak, it may struggle with difficulties, but this government, I want to make it clear, categorically and as chairman of one of the parties [the Bulgarial Socialist Party] in the ruling majority, this government has no alternative at the moment," Zafirov underscored. 

The Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Ivan Ivanov, who was also in Shumen, recalled that his colleagues from CC-DB were invited and participated in the negotiations for the formation of a government, and pointed out that it was not clear why they did not join the government. "From this point of view, their reasoning is incomprehensible to us, given that we are actually working on a management programme that was developed together. All other arguments are irrelevant. As the Deputy Prime Minister said, it is not clear what the alternative is. Ultimately, it will be Bulgarian citizens who suffer," said Ivanov. The most serious mechanism by which the opposition can carry out its activities in Parliament is votes of no confidence, but when these take place every week, they lose all meaning and waste valuable parliamentary time, he added. 

Deputy Prime Minister Zafirov, Minister Ivanov, and Shumen Mayor Hristo Hristov attended a ceremony Saturday to launch a project to renovate a multi-family residential building in the city.