Bulgaria set for next stage in likely futile bid to elect government
Bulgarian head of state President Roumen Radev will on July 22 hand the next in a succession of mandates to seek to form a government to the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria(WCC-DB) parliamentary group, which has already said that it would immediately refuse it.
Earlier this week, WCC-DB said that it would turn down the mandate because other parliamentary groups had declined to back a package of anti-corruption laws, approval of which it had made a precondition for trying to get a government elected.
WCC-DB is entitled to receive the second mandate because it is the 50th National Assembly’s second-largest group, a position into which it was put after the split in the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) relegated that group to fourth place.
The first mandate went to Parliament’s largest group, Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF, but lacked sufficient support in the National Assembly.
Radev said on July 18 that he would not delay the process set out in the constitution regarding attempts to form a government, “but I will also respect that the parties have the opportunity to run a fully-fledged campaign, and that cannot happen in August”.
Bulgaria’s constitution places in the hands of the head of state the choice regarding to which parliamentary group to hand the third and final mandate.
Failure at that stage – which in the current situation most observers see as likely – would mean that Radev would have to call parliamentary elections two months hence.
Radev has declined to comment on the third-mandate stage until it has been reached.
“Before we officially complete the procedure about the second mandate, I am avoiding speaking about a third mandate. The situation, as you see, is very dynamic,” he told reporters on Thursday.
His choices are the MRF – somewhat improbable given the faction fighting in that group – and, in descending order of size, pro-Kremlin Vuzrazhdane, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and populist ITN.
Vuzrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov said on July 18 that it was not “mathematically possible” to get a government elected on the basis of the third mandate.
BSP acting leader Atanas Zafirov expressed that party’s readiness “to participate actively in the dialogue on the third mandate, whoever gets it”, expressing a moderate dose of optimism that the possibilities of this parliament are not completely exhausted.
“The holder of the mandate for the third term must enter with a completely different approach and the hot topics of Bulgarian society must be put on the negotiation table,” Zafirov said.
ITN has said that it will hold talks with all parliamentary groups if handed the third mandate. It has called for an “expert” government. The party has denied that it has a deal with Radev to receive the third mandate.
GERB-UDF repeatedly has said that it would not support a government nominated on the basis of the second or third mandate, while the rival factions in the MRF are divided on the matter.
(Photo of Radev: president.bg)
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