Talks on government to be proposed by WCC-Democratic Bulgaria continue
At the point that the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria coalition receives the second mandate to seek to form a government, the names of the proposed cabinet ministers will be announced, WCC-DB candidate Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said on May 25.
President Roumen Radev has not yet announced when he will hand over the second mandate, which will go to WCC-DB as the second-largest parliamentary group.
The leaderships of WCC-DB and Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF have a deal by which Denkov will head the government for nine months with GERB’s Maria Gabriel as Deputy Prime Minister, after which for a further nine months Gabriel and Denkov will swap places.
Although earlier this week participants in the deal said that Gabriel would be the sole GERB-UDF figure in the government, which would otherwise would be made up of ministers nominated by WCC, Denkov said on Thursday that GERB-UDF had asked to have more seats.
However, there were certain rules, Denkov said. “We will put forward the list and then, if there are changes, they must go through the national councils of both sides.”
He did not comment on whether there are arrangements with GERB-UDF regarding the posts of deputy ministers.
Democratic Bulgaria coalition co-leader Hristo Ivanov said that his Yes Bulgaria party had a decision by which it had delegated to Denkov to lead talks on forming a cabinet with the second mandate.
“Our preference was for a completely neutral and expert format. We will most likely not participate with our political representatives in this cabinet, but we will give political support in Parliament for such a cabinet,” Ivanov said.
Democratic Bulgaria would announce its final decision only after the negotiations on the formation of a government and the presentation of the line-up were completed, he said.
“The final decision will be taken by our bodies when we see the final composition of the cabinet, but there must be a cabinet with the second mandate,” Ivanov said.
Democratic Bulgaria co-leader Atanas Atanassov said that everything possible would be done to form an elected government.
“We will make a decision, we will announce it, but of course, we will meet the expectations of the huge part of the Bulgarian population to make efforts to have a government. We will definitely do it,” Atanassov said.
Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) leader Mustafa Karadayi, speaking to reporters on May 25, declined to make clear whether his party would support the government to be nominated in the name of WCC-DB.
Before the arrangement between WCC-DB and GERB-UDF was announced on May 22, Karadayi had pledged that the MRF would support a government to be nominated by GERB-UDF and in which the MRF would have share.
“For now, we are not invited to such talks and for now we are not involved in the formation of this government. So for now, we, like you, are watching the process and see where it goes. However, there is one positive thing in this situation that everyone should we can account for, because the ongoing political crisis does not solve people’s problems, but on the contrary, in some cases deepens them,” Karadayi said.
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