Bulgaria’s WCC continues quest for support for proposed government
Facing a deadline of Friday at 5pm to present a proposed government or give up on the effort, Bulgaria’s We Continue the Change (WCC) is continuing its quest to get sufficient MPs to support it in a vote.
WCC co-leader, outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, said on July 5 that a few more MPs have to decide whether they would declare support for a proposed Cabinet.
WCC’s candidate Prime Minister is the party’s other co-leader, Assen Vassilev, Deputy PM and Finance Minister in the outgoing government.
The party has set itself the target of at least 121 MPs in the 240-seat National Assembly. However, 50 per cent plus one of MPs present and voting would be enough to vote a government into office.
“A hundred and twenty-one – we will see,” Petkov said.
“A few people have to decide to whom their loyalty is – to their party and leader, who, in my opinion, has not fulfilled the promise to the people or to all of us, to have responsibility towards Bulgaria, to have the chance not to enter a political crisis. Each of them is responsible for their own decision,” he said.
Petkov did not specify names, but said that WCC was holding talks with all MPs who want to see the governance programme of the proposed government.
“We are only sticking to our promise that we don’t talk to the four people we stated from the beginning. Everyone else has an invitation to talk to us,” he said.
WCC has ruled out negotiations with GERB leader Boiko Borissov, ITN leader Slavi Trinofonov and ITN parliamentary leader Toshko Yordanov, controversial figure and Movement for Rights and Freedoms MP Delyan Peevski and pro-Russian Vuzrazhdane party leader Kostadin Kostadinov. Yordanov’s name was not on the initial list but was added later.
The governance programme was expected to be ready on July 5, following drafting by working groups.
The three groups involved in efforts towards a new government – WCC, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Democratic Bulgaria – agreed earlier to write a clear document with specific goals and deadlines for implementation.
Should a Vassilev government be voted into office, it is possible that within six months after doing so, it will ask Parliament for a vote of confidence.
Democratic Bulgaria co-leader Atanas Atanassov told Nova Televizia on July 5: “Here, a period of six months is specified with these (governance) measures, after which something should follow, eventually”.
WCC MP Nastimir Ananiev said, similarly: “When you set a specific deadline and have a programme, you need to see what you have done”.
Ananiev declined to confirm that on July 6, the negotiating politicians will announce whether they have the support sought.
GERB leader Borissov said on July 5 that it was possible that a new government headed by Vassilev would be voted into office, but predicted that it would be a failure.
“It is best for us that they form a government, because they will fail, and fail at everything,” Borissov said at a meeting with mayors and municipal councillors in Nova Zagora.
“They know what will happen in an election. And that’s why they are running around in panic,” he said.
(Photo from WCC’s Facebook page)
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