Fourth day of first sitting of Bulgaria’s new National Assembly again fails to produce Speaker
The November 20 fourth day of the first sitting of Bulgaria’s 51st National Assembly again failed to see a Speaker elected, keeping the work of the legislature stalled.
Overshadowing the process is the fact that the 2023 amendments to Bulgaria’s constitution include the Speaker of the National Assembly on the short list of caretaker Prime Minister candidates, which raises the stakes in the election.
With few if anyone believing that the National Assembly elected in October will produce an elected government, the question of who might be the next caretaker PM has a certain import.
On November 20, there were a few differences from the abortive proceedings of November 11, 13 and 15.
One was that there was an initial field of four candidates, not five, after the We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition said that its group would back populist party ITN’s candidate, Silvi Kirilov, who in accordance with the constitution has been presiding over the first sitting because he is the oldest MP.
However, far from all WCC-DB MPs voted in favour of Kirilov, as the rounds of voting proceeded.
Another difference was that it was a slightly longer day for MPs, lasting about two hours, though there were two adjournments.
The day was relatively longer because MPs used up time insulting each other, for instance, by WCC-DB co-leader Kiril Petkov and pro-Russian party Vuzrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov exchanging accusations that the other’s group were fascists.
In the first round, Raya Nazaryan, the nominee of Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF coalition, got 69 votes – as before, solely from GERB-UDF MPs.
Kirilov got 67 votes, Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left coalition candidate Natalia Kisilova 50 votes and Vuzrazhdane candidate Petar Petrov 47 votes.
Although the Yes Bulgaria component of WCC-DB had said that it would vote against Kirilov at the second round should he be supported by Vuzrazhdane, in fact the WCC-DB ranks split at the first round, with 18 voting for Kirilov, one against and 18 abstaining.
At the second round, Nazaryan again got 69 votes, again solely from GERB-UDF, while the votes for Kirilov increased to 101 after a re-vote.
The second-round votes for Kirilov came from part of the WCC-DB MPs, Vuzrazhdane, ITN, the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms – the faction of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms loyal to MRF founder Ahmed Dogan – and nationalist-populist Mech MPs.
During the second adjournment, a meeting was held of the presiding officers council, to seek a resolution.
The status of such a meeting was not clear, because not only does Parliament not have an elected Speaker, it also has no elected Deputy Speakers, and because it is not yet properly constituted, technically it has no official parliamentary groups and thus no group leaders.
Thus, the presiding officers council meeting was not really a presiding officers council meeting.
But they met anyway, though all came to naught. The first sitting is to resume on November 22 at 10am.
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