No need to argue: Bulgaria’s ruling coalition silent in debate on motion of no confidence
Bulgarian MPs will vote on the latest motion of no confidence in the government of Prime Minister Boiko Borissov on June 30, following a one-sided debate in a special sitting of the National Assembly on June 26, in which the ruling coalition refused to engage the opposition on the substance of the motion.
The motion, filed on the grounds of the government’s policy on security issues, is the second one tabled by the opposition socialists so far this year. The first motion, on the topic of corruption, was defeated by 131 votes to 103 on January 25.
Motions of no confidence have a poor record of success in Bulgarian politics and are usually used by the opposition and government to convey their talking points during the televised debate before the vote.
But the latest debate was unusual in that MPs from Borissov’s GERB party offered almost no rebuttals to the lengthy list of alleged government failures read out by socialist leader Kornelia Ninova. Borissov himself was also absent from the Parliament floor, just as he was during the debate before the previous motion in January.
More time was spent by the nationalist United Patriots MPs bickering with the predominantly ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (which said that it would back the motion) on the topic of xenophobia.
After an hour and a half, National Assembly Speaker Tsveta Karayancheva asked several times if any other MPs wanted to take part in the debate before closing the sitting, which prompted a round of sarcastic applause from the socialist benches.
