Bulgaria: Borissov’s GERB-UDF says it is terminating negotiations on a government
Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF coalition said on January 5 that it was terminating negotiations on a government, seeking to blame Democratic Bulgaria – one of three formations with which it has been holding talks – for refusing to back GERB-UDF’s candidate to be Prime Minister.
GERB-UDF, as the largest group in the 51st National Assembly elected in late October, will be the first to be handed a mandate to seek to get a government elected.
Before the Festive Season holidays, GERB-UDF began talks with Democratic Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left coalition and populist party ITN, the current Parliament’s second-smallest group.
Democratic Bulgaria’s coalition partner, We Continue the Change, declined to participate in talks with GERB-UDF on a government unless Borissov and his group signed an agreement to isolate Magnitsky Act-sanctioned Delyan Peevski and his Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning group.
Initially, Borissov demanded that he be the candidate Prime Minister, but the position shifted to GERB-UDF saying that the Prime Minister should come from its ranks, without necessarily being Borissov.
Recent days have seen Facebook posts from GERB-UDF on the talks, being held in the National Assembly building, which it said had covered a governance agreement and decision-making mechanisms.
The others involved in the talks have been tight-lipped, saying little or nothing, barring the BSP – United Left speaking of a government not based on a coalition but on an agreed programme.
According to GERB-UDF’s January 5 post, it was breaking off the negotiations because Democratic Bulgaria would not accept the nomination of Rossen Zhelyazkov, a former Speaker of the National Assembly, as candidate PM.
GERB-UDF expressed thanks for the participation of the teams from BSP – United Left and ITN in the negotiations “and for the constructive tone on their part”.
Democratic Bulgaria, responding to GERB-UDF’s Facebook post, said on the evening of January 5 that it had learnt from the media that GERB-UDF was terminating negotiations.
“Today at 4.20pm., another meeting of the negotiations between GERB-UDF, Democratic Bulgaria, BSP – United Left and ITN ended. At this stage, the agreement for joint governance is not complete, although it is at a very advanced stage,” Democratic Bulgaria said.
For Democratic Bulgaria, the issue of the personality of the Prime Minister and the personnel composition of the government has always been subject to a completed agreement and the holding of a leadership meeting, it said.
“This position was explicitly confirmed once again by us at today’s meeting, as well as our position as a non-partisan, mutually acceptable figure for the Prime Minister. We learnt from the media that GERB is terminating the negotiations,” the post said.
These events in January 2025 are reminiscent of those in the early stages of 2024, when GERB-UDF sunk talks with WCC-DB on a government after what had been planned as a “rotation” of the office of Prime Minister. That scuppering set in train the steps that led to one of Bulgaria’s latest early parliamentary elections. At the time, similarly, GERB-UDF sought to exculpate itself of blame for the political crisis.
Head of state President Roumen Radev is yet to announce when he will hand the first mandate to GERB-UDF.
Should GERB-UDF renounce that mandate, the second will go to Parliament’s second-largest group, WCC-DB. Failure at that second stage would result in Radev handing the third and final mandate to the parliamentary group of his choice. Failure at the third stage would set Bulgaria on course for its eighth parliamentary elections since April 2021.
Borissov has said that GERB-UDF would not support the nomination of a government with a mandate held by any group other than his own.
(Photo via GERB-UDF’s Facebook page)
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