Bulgaria: Sombre mood hangs over process towards bidding to elect government
A sombre, if not gloomy and pessimistic, mood pervades ahead of Bulgaria’s Parliament taking its latest steps to seek to elect a government.
On December 11, President Roumen Radev held the second of three days of consultations with parliamentary groups ahead of handing over the first mandate to try to form a government, which will be offered to the largest group, Boiko Borisssov’s GERB-UDF.
But controversy attends that process of consultations, given Radev’s decision not to invite the parliamentary group around Delyan Peevski, the controversial figure who leads the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Democracy and who is subject to US and UK sanctions for large-scale corruption.
While Radev’s move has been welcomed by the reformist We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition, which wants Peevski isolated by having a formal cordon sanitaire thrown around him and his group, it has – somewhat predictably – irked Peevski himself.
On December 10, Peevski said that he would not go the consultations with Radev, but representatives of his parliamentary group would attend.
After the President’s office then published a schedule of meetings omitting MRF – New Beginning, it confirmed to the media that the omission was deliberate.
Peevski said on December 11 that Radev had “violated the constitution once again”.
“Roumen Radev has denied a party that has 300 000 voters from all ethnicities. This is unheard of in the history of Bulgaria. He denies everyone he doesn’t like. This man is an anarchist,” Peevski said.
WCC-DB co-leader Kiril Petkov said on December 11: “We have already taught Peevski a lesson – that when he abuses democracy, he enters isolation.
“The President showed yesterday that he has accepted the cordon sanitaire, because only New Beginning was not invited to consultations,” Petkov said.
Constitutional law specialists have told the media that indeed Radev has violated Article 99 of the constitution, which provides for the head of state to hold consultations with the parliamentary groups before the mandate-handing.
Constitutional law lecturer Dr. Orlin Kolev told Bulgarian National Television: “Consultations should be held with everyone. Because this means that consultations with the first parliamentary group might not take place either”.
Political scientist Professor Roumyana Kolarova told bTV that according to constitutional experts, the text of the constitution clearly states that the president must meet with all parliamentary groups.
She said that it is “not natural” for the President to exclude parliamentary groups, as they represent voters.
The meetings that Radev held on December 11, successively with pro-Kremlin party Vuzrazhdane and the Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left coalition, saw representatives of both parties make reference to the fractious relations between GERB-UDF and WCC-DB.
There have been indications that GERB-UDF would hold talks with the Democratic Bulgaria component of WCC-DB, but by late afternoon on December 11, it was not clear when such talks might begin.
Vuzrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov told Radev that Bulgaria had very serious problems that were deepening and the party was ready to propose a cabinet if it receives a mandate.
Bulgaria’s constitution provides for the first mandate to go to the largest parliamentary group, in this case GERB-UDF, the second to the second-largest group – WCC-DB – while the head of state has a free hand in choosing to which group to hand the third and final mandate.
“We are ready to take responsibility,” Kostadinov said.
“We can talk to the other political forces and we have shown it. If we get a third mandate, we will present a cabinet that will be agreed on or at least we will do what is necessary to agree on with the other political forces,” he said.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Radev, Kostadinov said that Vuzrazhdane would not support a government proposed on the basis of the first and second mandates.
BSP acting leader Atanas Zafirov told Radev that the party would participate in negotiations on a government “if we are truly convinced that this would be a Bulgarian and nationally responsible cabinet , even at the cost of certain risks to the party”.
“We are very close to the moment when the foundations of democracy and the foundations of statehood will be put to the test,” Zafirov said.
“We believe that there must be a government – not only because of the need for a Budget.. A government must stop a total collapse of the state, stop the takeover of the state, but also have measures that guarantee the honesty of the vote and that the votes of Bulgarian voters are not stolen.”
Zafirov said that GERB-UDF and WCC-DB must start talking to each other “because now they are flooding us with scandalous dialogue, cordons, bargaining – all this is a path to new elections”.
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