We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria refuses mandate to try to form government
A delegation from the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (WCC-DB) parliamentary group, headed by former prime minister Nikolai Denkov, received on July 22 a mandate to seek to form a government and immediately handed it back.
WCC-DB earlier had said that it would take this step, after failing to find support among other parliamentary groups for a package of anti-corruption legislation. It had made such support a prerequisite for attempting to get a government elected.
The group received the second of three mandates provided for in the constitution after it became the 50th National Assembly’s second-largest group by default, after the split in the Movement for Rights and Freedoms that relegated the MRF group to Parliament’s fourth-largest.
At the brief ceremony, Denkov told Radev: “The answer after the talks is that this cannot happen [to form a cabinet with the second mandate].
“We will not change our approach, we will maintain those priorities that we have always brought to the fore. Let’s create as a country, a welcoming environment for business and investors, so that we can increase incomes, reduce inequalities, have funds to provide better education and health care…
“Unfortunately, in this National Assembly, it turns out to be impossible… The fight against corruption is not an end in itself… the solution that I will provide you is that I receive a mandate, as required by the constitution, but with the task of returning it unfulfilled,” Denkov said.
“I consider the procedure about the second mandate to be completed,” Radev replied.
As head of state, Radev has a free hand to decide to which parliamentary group to hand the third and final mandate.
Failure at the third-mandate stage would propel Bulgaria to early parliamentary elections, which would be the seventh time in just more than three years that Bulgarians elect a legislature.
(Screenshot from BNT’s live broadcast of the event)
Please support The Sofia Globe’s independent journalism by becoming a subscriber to our page on Patreon:
Become a Patron!
