Special sitting of Bulgaria’s Parliament to hear PM on Covid-19 flops for lack of quorum
A special sitting of Bulgaria’s National Assembly that had been scheduled for April 21 to hear Prime Minister Boiko Borissov on the government’s actions in the Covid-19 situation was cancelled after too few MPs were present to form a quorum.
Ninety-one MPs registered as present. To be quorate, the National Assembly would have required 121 out of a total 240 members of Parliament.
The failure of the sitting to proceed followed a statement by Menda Stoyanova, head of Parliament’s committee on the Budget and a senior member of Borissov’s GERB party, that GERB would not participate in the special sitting.
Among the reasons for GERB’s refusal was to prevent the further spread of new coronavirus.
GERB did not agree that the sitting was of such importance to the State of Emergency that potential carriers of the virus should all gather in one place.
Weeks ago, the National Assembly voted to hold sittings only for parliamentary business directly connected to measures against Covid-19.
The special sitting had been requested by the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party.
Stoyanova said that GERB did not want to be complicit in the BSP using Parliament for PR purposes. The BSP had appearances on all major television stations to put its points across, she said.
Bulgarian National Television reported on the afternoon of April 21 that the BSP had tabled a second request for a special sitting to be convened to hear Borissov.
BSP leader Kornelia Ninova said that the government was “creating chaos and instilling fear,” according to the report.
Please support The Sofia Globe through our Patreon page
(Photo: parliament.bg)
