Bulgarian Prime Minister says government is resigning
Bulgarian Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov said on December 11 that his government would resign.
The announcement came the afternoon after December 10 saw many tens of thousands of Bulgarians protesting in the country’s cities and abroad demanding the resignation of the government.
Zhelyazkov’s government was due to face the sixth motion of no confidence in it on December 11, tabled by the opposition coalition We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria with the support of two minority opposition parties.
The vote had been scheduled to be held at 1.30pm, but governing majority partner GERB-UDF MPs, including leader Boiko Borissov, absented themselves from the sitting at that point, as did MPs from two government minority partners, the Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left and populist ITN.
A half-hour recess was called, but after half an hour, instead of the sitting resuming, Zhelyazkov made his announcement.
He said that in Parliament, the vote would go ahead and be defeated, but would be followed by his resignation.
The drama comes 20 days before Bulgaria is due to use the euro as its currency, but that will not be affected by the political developments.
The first motion of no confidence in the Zhelyazkov government was tabled by Vuzrazhdane in April, on the grounds of foreign policy, and the second was tabled later in April by Mech, on the grounds of corruption.
The third, which was rejected on July 4, was tabled by Vuzrazhdane, Mech and Veliche, on the grounds of what they called the failure the government’s fiscal policy, and the fourth, defeated on July 11, was tabled by Velichie, backed by Mech and Vuzrazhdane, on the grounds of failures in environmental policy.
The National Assembly voted on September 18 to reject the fifth motion of no confidence in the Zhelyazkov government. It was tabled by WCC-DB, supported by MPs from Mech and the Ahmed Dogan loyalists of the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) group. It accused the government of failure in the internal security and justice sectors.
