site.btaPM Zhelyazkov Calls Off Wednesday's Cabinet Meeting

Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov has called off Wednesday's regular meeting of the Council of Ministers, the government information service said on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, GERB leader Boyko Borissov met with the GERB-UDF parliamentary group and Zhelyazkov at the party's headquarters and told the MPs of GERB to go back to their constituencies.

In a statement at the meeting which was livestreamed on his Facebook page, Borissov said: "I see no place for GERB in such a government. We are the sixth-largest force." He was referring to Sunday's municipal council elections in the southern town of Pazardzhik, which were won by Delyan Peevski's Movement for Rights and Freedoms, with the opposition Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria coalition in second place, and GERB in sixth place.

"Is there any point in us staying in the government?" he asked. "If we stay, it will only be formally; we will no longer provide them with a quorum," Borissov said. "We will not break the coalition, but we will not continue to participate in this way either."

The government coalition led by GERB-UDF includes the Bulgarian Socialist Party and There Is Such a People. GERB-UDF has 66 MPs in the 240-seat Parliament.