WCC-Democratic Bulgaria will not support a government with mandate or participation of GERB
All the parties in the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria electoral coalition have decided that they will not support a government with the mandate or participation of Boiko Borissov’s GERB, WCC co-leader Assen Vassilev told a joint news conference by the coalition’s leaders on April 7.
In Bulgaria’s April 2 early parliamentary elections, the GERB-UDF coalition won 69 seats, making it the largest parliamentary group in the 49th National Assembly and thus entitled by the constitution to be the first to receive a mandate to seek to form a government.
WCC co-leader Kiril Petkov told the news conference: “Our decision that we will not support GERB in the first term is based on values.
“During the last parliament and in this election, we see these value differences. Bulgarian citizens must be sure that when they vote for us, we will respect everything that we promise,” Petkov said.
He said that if GERB fails to form a government with the first mandate, WCC-DB will take responsibility for proposing a cabinet.
Petkov said that the coalition will engage in talks with all parties on important policies for the country – the Budget, inflation and food prices.
Vassilev listed several serious problems in the conduct of the April 2 elections, including invalid ballots adding up to five times more than in the October elections and numerous gaps in video monitoring of ballot-counting.
He said that WCC-DB had detailed these problems in a letter sent to the Central Election Commission on April 6, but had not yet received a reply.
Vassilev said that the ballot bags in the problematic sections should be opened to check the vote again. However, he admitted that such a check would most probably not change the result, but insisted that it was necessary to learn how to conduct normal elections.
Democratic Bulgaria co-leader Atanas Atanassov said that his Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria could not support a government staffed by Borissov: “We are not a rehabilitation or amnesty body”.
Atanassov said that he was surprised that Borissov – at his post-election news conference – had suggested involving President Roumen Radev in the negotiations on a government. Radev should “go home” to the presidency, Atanassov said.
Democratic Bulgaria co-leader Hristo Ivanov said that the WCC-DB coalition would work for the restoration of the parliamentary republic, as well as for the national priorities, with an emphasis on the need for profound judicial reform.
The April 7 news conference was the first clear unified statement by the WCC-DB on the position of refusing to back a government nominated by or including GERB, after WCC made its position clear days ago and there was speculation that DB was willing to negotiate with Borissov’s party on a GERB-nominated government.
(Screenshot, from left: Atanassov, Vassilev, Petkov and Ivanov)
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