Bulgaria’s President to take unhurried approach to bids to form government
Bulgarian head of state President Roumen Radev has invited the GERB-UDF parliamentary group, which won the largest shares of seats in the October 2 early parliamentary elections, to send representatives for a first round of consultations on October 26, ahead of him holding talks with the remaining groups and then beginning the process of offering mandates to seek to form a government.
Radev did not say when the remaining six parliamentary groups would be invited for consultations.
“I will not rush the consultations and the handing out of mandates,” he said.
Parliament had a lot of work to do, such as adopting a Budget for 2023 and approving laws related to funding from the EU’s Recovery and Sustainability Plan, Radev said.
“We will hold consultations exhaustively to discuss all these crises and the possibilities to solve them,” he said.
He said that there were several important priorities around the Budget.
“First of all, that there should be no reduction in social payments, salaries and pensions. Second, that we should not allow an increase of the Budget deficit and the deepening of the debt spiral. And thirdly, no less important – to prevent the consideration of the Budget from becoming an auction for pre-election bidding, which would be extremely dangerous,” Radev said.
Asked whether he was optimistic about a government being formed, he said that he would respond after the consultations were held and the first mandate to seek to form a government handed over. That first mandate will go to GERB-UDF, as the largest parliamentary group.
Tomislav Donchev, deputy leader of the GERB party, confirmed that the party would accept Radev’s invitation to the October 26 talks, perhaps sending a large delegation “because there are several important topics for conversation”.
“The first, of course, the main one, the chances, the possibilities of forming a governing majority and a government within of this Parliament,” Donchev said.
There were other important topics, including the Budget for 2023, and energy, he said.
Donchev said that Radev was correct to say that he did not intend hurrying in handing over the mandates.
“This Parliament must be given a chance, because otherwise the ‘quick elections’ option would reproduce the current situation and we would be faced with the same tasks we are faced with at the moment,” Donchev said.
(Photo: president.bg)
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