Bulgarian President may hand over government-forming mandate only in New Year
Bulgarian head of state President Roumen Radev indicated on December 16 that given that parties had asked for more time for negotiations, he would wait for the New Year before handing over the first mandate to seek to form a government.
In line with the constitution, the first mandate must be handed to the Parliament’s largest group, which in the case of the Parliament elected on October 27 is Boiko Borissov’s centre-right GERB-UDF coalition.
On December 13, GERB-UDF invited Democratic Bulgaria (part of the reformist We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition, Parliament’s second-largest group), the Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left coalition and populist party ITN for talks. All three accepted.
Radev told reporters on December 16 that the time requested by the political forces was justified only if Parliament, along with the attempts to form a government, restores its normal work and makes up for lost time.
The constitutional procedure should also take this process into account, Radev said.
He said that it was obvious that the talks among the political forces were proceeding with difficulty. Radev gave the example of the election of the Speaker of the National Assembly, which took MPs close to a month from the time this Parliament’s first sitting began.
Asked whether GERB-UDF had asked for a specific time frame, Radev said that there was no agreement on such a time frame, but if this week was really necessary for talks, then at the beginning of next week there would be no way to hand over a mandate before the Christmas and New Year holidays.
“This means that we will really go after the New Year,” he said.
GERB-UDF and Democratic Bulgaria held talks on December 16.
Speaking ahead of the talks, MP Ivailo Mirchev of Democratic Bulgaria said that it would not back down from the requirement that GERB-UDF joins in signing the declaration on a cordon sanitaire around Delyan Peevski, the controversial figure subject to US and UK sanctions for large-scale corruption and who heads the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning parliamentary group.
“The more important thing is to achieve this, for the measures from the declaration on the cordon sanitaire to be included in a coalition agreement. This will be our goal,” Mirchev said.
“We cannot make concessions from this, at least because in Democratic Bulgaria we are the authors of this declaration and all the measures from the declaration should be included in the coalition agreement.”
In the talks on Monday between GERB-UDF and Democratic Bulgaria, the possibility of forming a broad parliamentary majority supporting a regular government with an anti-corruption and pro-European profile – with ensured stability and without floating majorities – was discussed. This was announced by the two negotiating parties on their Facebook accounts.
During the talks, Democratic Bulgaria presented the measures in the declaration and discussed potential opportunities for integrating them in the legislative programme of the National Assembly, as well as including them in a comprehensive coalition agreement.
GERB-UDF said that it would hold negotiations with BSP – United Left and with ITN on December 17.
Topics will include measures on Budget consolidation, judicial reform and combating corruption, as well as specific expert discussions on individual sectors.
BSP – United Left MP Ivan Ivanov said on Nova Televizia on December 16 that if an agreement is reached during the negotiations to form a cabinet, it is possible that the BSP congress will be convened earlier in order to overcome the BSP’s decision prohibiting coalitions with GERB.
Ivanov said that BSP – United Left would not support GERB leader Borissov being the candidate Prime Minister. Recently, Borissov has revived his insistence that he should head a future government.
Ivanov, asked whether BSP – United Left would support another GERB-UDF member for the role, said that “anything is possible in this complex political spectacle”.
ITN MP Pavela Mitova said that the party’s condition remains that Borissov not be the Prime Minister in a possible future elected government, and nor should the leader of any other political formation.
“We believe that a future government must be organised on the basis of expertise and first the topics around which the political formations unite must be fixed, deadlines for implementing them must be fixed, so that political responsibility can be sought from the citizens themselves, and only then the people who can meaningfully implement this programme should be sought,” Mitova said.
(Photo of Radev: president.bg)
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