Reformist Bloc October 8 meeting fails to produce united stance on possible GERB government
An October 8 meeting of leaders of the parties of the Reformist Bloc on a unified position on a GERB government ended without result and was held in the absence of one of the leaders.
Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria leader Radan Kanev said before the meeting that he did not intend attending because some parties did not have a formal position, all that would be heard was the opinions of individual leaders, and further, there were obvious differences in these.
Boiko Borissov’s GERB won the largest share of seats in the 43rd National Assembly on October 5, and intends holding talks with the other seven parties, starting from October 13, to recruit support for a GERB minority government.
The GERB negotiating team will meet representatives of other parties in respective order of the number of seats those parties will have in Parliament.
Borissov repeated on October 8 that if GERB’s attempt failed, the country again would face early elections.
The Reformist Bloc was seen as politically compatible with GERB. However, provisional results showed that the two would have enough seats to form a coalition government – and moreover, there are serious internal divisions in the bloc on relations with GERB.
Two of the leaders of the constituent parties, Bozhidar Lukarski and Meglena Kouneva, are seen – on the basis of their public comments – as having a much more accommodating line towards a Borissov GERB government, while others such as Kanev, Korman Ismailov and Nikolai Nedelchev have a stricter approach.
Ahead of the elections, it was the Reformist Bloc’s stance that it could not support a government in which Borissov returned to his former role as prime minister and Tsvetanov reprised his role as interior minister.
After the October 8 meeting, Lukarski said that no decisions had been made and, according to him, the bloc’s view was that specific proposals had to come from GERB about the holders of portfolios in a future cabinet. (This view is in fact a matter of dispute within the bloc.)
Lukarski said that Borissov’s name “had not been mentioned” at the meeting. According to Lukarski, it was important what priorities would unite the government, rather than who would be prime minister.
Separately, Kanev said that it could not be ruled out that in the new National Assembly, MPs for the Reformist Bloc could be attracted to other parliamentary groups, adding that that such a risk always existed in every parliamentary group in Bulgaria.
Kanev said that his party had a position on the government issue and would present it at a meeting on October 9.
(Archive photo: Reformist Bloc leaders at a December 2013 agreement on the future of the political alliance)
