BSP passed the ball to the Parliament to decide on the cabinet-forming mandate

The National Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) on July 26 approved the proposal of Kornelia Ninova the Socialists to submit to the Parliament governance and legislative programme until the end of 2022. It is about the programme developed by the BSP, "We Continue the Change" and "Democratic Bulgaria".

If the Parliament adopts the draft, the BSP will nominate Assen Vassilev as Prime Minister, Ninova said. In her words, Assen Vassilev has accepted the nomination.

If the programme does not meet support, the Socialists will return the mandate unfulfilled the very next day, probably on Friday, declared Kornelia Ninova.

The draft legislative and governance programme is scheduled as the first item on the National Assembly's agenda for Thursday.

"We are open, honest and transparent from start to finish. We are not haggling anywhere. We are having an institutional conversation. We want to finally impose principled, responsible and statesmanlike behaviour in politics. Here - I stand before the Bulgarian people and say: 'We have done our best to help you for the coming months. The result is this - these laws will guarantee peace and security. If they are upheld, we move forward. If they are not supported, we will go to elections," Ninova said.

The programme contains 79 bills, divided into several areas:

• Fight against corruption - nomination and election of Boyko Rashkov as chairman of the anti-corruption commision and changes in the anti-corruption legislation.
• Stabilisation of the economy in crises.
• Social support for families and households.
• The laws on which the unblocking of funds under the Resilience Plan depends.

The BSP will also table a draft decision to extend the work of the Paarliament in view of the urgent problems that require a solution, such as the case of the chairperson of Bulgaria’s Energy and Water Regulatory Commission.

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The National Council of the BSP met on July 26 afternoon to discuss two possible courses of action concerning the mandate to form a government. This was the third mandate presented by Bulgaria’s President Radev for forming a cabinet within this Parliament after the Kiril Petkov's government was toppled in a no-confidence vote on June 22.

The two options for the BSP were formulated at a meeting of the party Executive Bureau on July 25 but nobody in the Executive Council would say what those were.

The first two government-forming mandates - the first handed to “We Continue the Change” and the second to the opposition GERB - did not produce a government. BSP received the third mandate and started negotiating a possible government with “We Continue the Change”, “Democratic Bulgaria” (DB) and “There Is Such a People” (TISP), and reported having agreed on a programme for a short-term government to take the country through the crises.

As they were about to start discussing the government line-up, there were different developments. DB left the microphones on during a meeting of the DB parliamentary group, which discussed the progress of the negotiations. On July 22, the leader of TISP Slavi Trifonov said that TISP was withdrawing from the talks. Trifonov cited a leaked recording of the meeting of the Democratic Bulgaria parliamentary group and said he was offended by what he heard in it.