Bulgaria's 48th National Assembly - what did it do?

This Parliament was the fourth in two years.

It leaves with a total of 205 draft laws tabled, 134 of them prepared by MPs and the rest by the Council of Ministers.

This Parliament, however, passed 53 laws. It will be remembered, like the previous 3, for scandals and lack of consensus.

It was represented by 7 parliamentary groups - GERB-UDF, "We Continue the Change", Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), "Vazrazhdane", Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), "Democratic Bulgaria" and "Bulgaria Ascending". At the beginning of the work of this National Assembly, which started on 19 October, 2022, it became clear that these parliamentary forces will not be able to establish a regular government.

Last working day of Bulgaria's 48th National Assembly

One of the first things the MPs worked on was the Electoral Code to prepare for new elections. They re-introduced the use of the paper ballot as a right of choice and so GERB-UDF, BSP and MRF got the nickname "the paper ballot coalition".

A Parliament born with sharp opposition - 3 days were needed for the MPs to elect a Speaker.

"Time is ticking, as I told you today is the third day, the fourth day is coming, people are waiting. I deeply want to believe that today we will come out of this chamber with some decision," Vezhdi Rashidov, Speaker of the 48th National Assembly said on October 22,.2022.

The 48th National Assembly worked for 3 and a half months in 50 sittings, 8 of which were extraordinary. There were long sitings, from early morning till late evening, for the extension of the old budget and the amendments to the Electoral Code.

18 hours - that's the longest duration of arguments over changes to the Electoral Code in a legal affairs committee on November 17, 2022. Their consideration in plenary hall lasted three days of more than 12 hours each.

In the final days of this Parliament, despite many assurances from everyone that they were in favour of judicial reform and the introduction of a mechanism to investigate the Prosecutor General (if there is sufficient evidence they have committed a crime), a first reading debate took place, but with no time for a final decision and again in scandals, insults and discussions not on the topic.

"I have brought these two hands to Mr Georgiev. I bought them for him a long time ago, he has an affinity for hands," said Radostin Vassilev of “We Continue the Change”.

Although touting the Recovery and Resilience Plan laws as the main argument to secure a government and a functioning parliament, lawmakers filled most of the 48th National Assembly's three months of life electing and replacing committee heads, hearing ministers and accusing each other.

Under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, MPs had to pass just over 20 amendments to numerous laws, but by the final day, this was done in just 10, and not entirely.

The most important thing this National Assembly has failed to do was to elect a regular cabinet, and it failed to do so three times.

Images by BGNES, Dessislava Kulelieva