Bulgaria’s Parliament voted to accept the resignation of “Borissov 3” cabinet

The procedure of whether the Prime Minister should come to the National Assembly and be present in person during the debate on the resignation of the cabinet has caused disputes among the parliamentary forces. After a sharp legal dispute, the MPs eventually accepted the resignation of "Borissov 3" cabinet, with 156 votes "in favour”.

The results of the vote were greeted with applause by some MPs in the plenary hall. There were no speeches from the GERB-UDF parliamentary group.

Not only must it be voted on, not only must it be adopted, but the one who resigned must come to this chair. I am not sure yesterday who filed the resignation in the office. I have not seen Prime Minister Boyko Borissov here in the building of the Parliament, I do not know if any of you have seen him, I ask the media, said Georgi Svilenski of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

"What will happen when this resignation is adopted, tell me in practice. Will the government stop functioning? I will tell you how it will stop - form a government and Boyko Borissov will immediately stop being the Prime Minister. Do it, people! Can you tell us if you are going to rule, or not,” Toma Bikov from GERB said.

"Mr. Bikov, you have just insulted the Constitution and the laws of this country. The resignation must be voted on. And you cannot call the texts of the Constitution and the laws ridiculous," said Mika Zaikova of "There is Such a People."

"The referee of the match must be inconspicuous. Then the game runs in a normal way, no one gets nervous, no self-serving remarks are made, no waste of time. In this case, in view of the established parliamentary practice, voting is applied. So, please be close to that and if we have to clarify it, it should happen outside the rostrum”, said Tatiana Doncheva from "Rise up! Mutri out!".

"When we have voted for resignation, the Council of Ministers performs its functions until the election of a new Council of Ministers. So the Constitution very clearly says what will happen in the period from voting and acceptance of resignation to election of a new Council of Ministers," said Nadezhda Yordanova from "Democratic Bulgaria".

"Dear Mrs Speaker, we will obviously be using this rostrum to delay parliamentary time. Things are quite clear - the third point is the hearing of the Prime Minister, based on article 113. There are three sub-items. The second is the presentation of the plan on point one to the EC for evaluation. The fact that the plan has been submitted, this point remains. He has submitted it and we will ask him to present it from the rostrum so that we can have a debate and discuss it," said Yordan Tsonev from MRF.

The intention of GERB to submit a proposal, with which the proportional system for electing MPs will be changed into a majority vote system, provoked reaction from the leader of "There is Such a People", Slavi Trifonov, who said on his Facebook page that GERB, if they wanted to make legislative changes for a majority vote, they should have done it 5 years ago, "when they had power and when, in a legally held referendum, two and a half million Bulgarian citizens wanted the electoral system to be a majority one."

In the plenary hall, Tatiana Doncheva said: In order to have a majority system of elections, it is necessary to have the relevant constituencies. The constituencies in our country are not exactly defined.

"BSP has always been against the first-past-the post system, because there is no adequate representation of voters in the majority vote. Slavi Trifonov understands that this is a huge amount of legislative work," said Krum Zarkov of BSP.

The release of the National Operational Headquarters against Coronavirus (the coronavirus task force) from its duties by the outgoing cabinet provoked sharp mixed reactions, both in the corridors of the Parliament and in the Plenary Hall with a series of declarations:

Alexander Simidchiev read a declaration on behalf of "Democratic Bulgaria":

"Yesterday it became clear that the activity of the coronavirus task force was terminated. This seems like an event to destabilize the control of the pandemic. How is it possible, given that there are 10,000 patients in hospitals, to abdicate from basic crisis management. It was not clear from the Council of Ministers who and with what motives has decided to disband the task force.The decision is to restore the task force! The decision of the PM to go on leave is unusual. It is about playing with the greatest fears of the people. Continuity is the basis for restoring statehood. When decisions are measured by human health this price is unaffordable," pointed out Simidchiev.

Maya Manolova presented a declaration on the topic on behalf of "Rise up! Mutri out":

"Obviously Borissov is carrying out a punitive action on the principle of 'after me, the flood' with the relase of the coronavirus task force from duties. Borissov is trying to escape responsibility. It must be said that he can release them from work, but he cannot release them from responsibility. Responsibility will be borne by him and the Minister of Health. Why has Bulgaria become a champion in mortality? The statistics are shocking in 2020, the statistics of deaths is about 19,000 more than in 2019. The Prime Minister owes an answer. We want to raise the following questions: why are we in the first place in terms of overall mortality in the years before the pandemic? This is not elections in which dead souls are counted as casting votes. These are families who lost their relatives. Parliament must decide what the next body should be for management of the crisis. People are interested in how the health crisis will be managed. We urge Borissov to come here and answer these questions," Maya Manolova said.

Georgi Mihailov read a declaration by BSP:

"BSP met the decision of the Council of Ministers to dissolve the coronavirus task force yesterday with concern. Omissions were made in the activities of the task force. Fears and contradictory opinions were created, but leaving the state in this way raises many questions. Our proposal is now, at the end of the day, when a committee in healthcare is elected, to analyze everything carefully."

Daniela Daritkova read a declaration by GERB:

"Indeed, responsibility is the more important quality that both medics and government officials must have. The space in this hall does not make it possible to keep physical distance and some MPs are not wearing masks. Please make MPs wear masks. The topic about the management of the pandemic is very responsible. The responsibility lies with the Minister of Health and the Council of Ministers."

Provoked by the reactions in the National Assembly, the Minister of Health Kostadin Angelov came to the plenary hall. He told lawmakers that the responsibility for managing and dealing with the pandemic was not that of the task force, but his personally as health minister, and said he believed the state was dealing with the second wave of the pandemic.

images by Dessislava Kulelieva

Чуйте последните новини, където и да сте!
Последвайте ни във Facebook и Instagram
Следете и канала на БНТ в YouTube
Вече може да ни гледате и в TikTok
Намерете ни в Google News