Bulgarian PM Borissov re-elected GERB leader as party pledges no co-operation with BSP
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov was, in a move that held no surprise, re-elected leader of his centre-right GERB party at a congress on November 26 2017.
Borissov was re-elected unanimously, with no other candidate for the post.
GERB parliamentary leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandukova and Bourgas mayor Dimitar Nikolov were re-elected as Borissov’s deputies.
However, Tsetska Tsacheva – currently justice minister, and who lost the 2016 parliamentary elections and who failed to get enough votes to be elected as an MP in May 2017 – was ousted from her post as a deputy leader, and replaced by Daniela Daritkova, head of the health committee of the National Assembly.
Dimitar Glavchev, who resigned as Speaker of the National Assembly earlier in November, was elected head of GERB’s control committee.
The GERB congress adopted a declaration that the party would in no way work with the Bulgarian Socialist Party after elections. If the current National Assembly serves a full term, the next parliamentary elections will be in 2021.
GERB repeatedly has said that no talks ever have been conducted with the BSP about a coalition government and that such a coalition is impossible in the future.
The declaration said that GERB had “insurmountable differences (with the BSP) in our visions for the development of Bulgaria, we have different ideas about political morals and values, we are the modern European party in Bulgaria whose voice is heard in Europe”.
Borissov lashed out at those calling for early elections during the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2018. This would shake the stability of the state and it would cost 50 million euro, he said.
He said that now was the time for a common effort to move forward the topic of the Western Balkans, saying that this “suits everyone”.
Along with other government figures, Borissov repeatedly has reiterated that the Euro-Atlantic integration of the Western Balkans will be a key theme during his country’s EU Presidency.
