Ruling coalition minority partner Bulgarian Socialist Party agrees to rotation of post of Parliament Speaker
Meeting on October 26, the national council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) – a minority partner in the country’s ruling majority – agreed to a proposal that the post of Speaker of the National Assembly be rotated among the partners in the governing coalition.
The decision, taken with 100 votes in favour, three against and two abstentions, came five days after the proposal was made in governing coalition council talks by Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF, the holder of the mandate to govern, and minority partner populist party ITN.
Those governing coalition talks were an episode in the political drama unleashed a week before by Borissov after his party had a poor showing in a local by-election in Pazardzhik, in which Magnitsky Act-sanctioned Delyan Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning acquired by far the largest share of votes.
Borissov’s talk of “reformattting” the Cabinet and of possibly bringing in MRF – New Beginning came to nothing after Borissov and Peevski held talks, with Peevski’s party remaining in its role of holding the government in place while not formally holding Cabinet posts.
This left the proposal of rotating the Speaker’s post as the sole consequence of the drama, barring coalition talks on draft Budget 2026 – talks that anyway would have taken place.
Currently, the Speaker of the National Assembly is Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left MP Natalia Kiselova, who was voted into the post in December 2024 to break a logjam that was preventing proceedings of Parliament getting underway.
Kiselova, who has been criticised publicly by Borissov, said on October 26 before the BSP national council meeting that she would abide by whatever decision was taken and would stay on as an MP if she had to step down as Speaker.
Kiselova did not attend the meeting of the BSP national council.
It is not yet clear when the rotation will take place nor for how long each Speaker will hold the office.
According to Borissov, GERB-UDF is to nominate Raya Nazaryan, currently a Deputy Speaker and who was Speaker of the 50th National Assembly, to be elected as next Speaker of the 51st.
Nazaryan, speaking to bTV on October 26 before the BSP national council meeting, said that GERB-UDF would await the socialists’ decision and after that, the issue would be discussed by the governing coalition council.
She said that when Kiselova was elected “the election was not a political decision, but rather an administrative one” in order for Parliament to start working and for there to be negotiations on forming a ruling majority.
The post of Speaker of the National Assembly was not part of the governance agreement, Nazaryan said.
GERB-UDF MP Toma Bikov told Nova Televizia on October 26 that there would no change to the line-up of the Cabinet and GERB-UDF was preparing for the government to have a full term in office.
“We propose that each parliamentary formation have its own candidate for Speaker for a term of one year, and in the fourth year the post could be taken up again by Ms. Kiselova.”
Bikov said that the proposal to rotate the post of Speaker was not related to the constitutional provision that makes Parliament’s principal presiding officer a candidate to be caretaker Prime Minister.
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