BULGARIA’S PRESIDENT PLEVNELIEV CONCLUDED THE POLITICAL CONSULTATIONS ON FORMING A NEW CABINET

On 24th of November, Bulgaria’s President Rossen Plevneliev concluded the consultations with the parties represented in Parliament. The round of consultations was initiated after the resignation of Boyko Borissov’s cabinet following the defeat of his party GERB’s candidate in the November 2016 Presidential elections.

After the end of the consultations, the President will move towards the next step from the constitutional procedure – offering mandates to seek forming a caretaker government. He has said that before that he will convene the Consultative Council on National Security, which is expected to take place on Tuesday 29th of November.

Firstly, the President will offer the mandate to the largest parliamentary group and if they return it, then he will offer the mandate to the second largest parliamentary group. If a third offering of mandate is made, the President selects the parliamentary group to which he will offer it.

The round of consultations started with the main ruling party, the centre right GERB. The outgoing Prime Minister and leader of GERB, Boyko Borissov, said that his party would not form a government within the current 43rd National Assembly.

On the next day, the President held consultations with the second largest party, the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party, but its leader Kornelia Ninova said they would refuse a mandate for form a caretaker government.

In the consolations with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, the leader of the party Mustafa Karadaya said that in the current National assembly, the various options for formation of government were exhausted. Karadaya said hast most likely there would be early parliamentary elections and he saw no problem with this.

After the consultations with the centre-right Reformist Bloc (RB), a minority partner in the coalitional government, the leader of one of the RB’s constituent parties and the bloc’s parliamentary group leader Naiden Zelenogorski said that the RB could not form a government without the support of GERB. .He said that if the Reformist Bloc was offered a mandate by Plevneliev “then we will think and reflect, but this cannot happen without the colleagues from GERB within this Parliament”.

Rumen Yonchev from Bulgarian Democratic Centre said after the consultations with President Plevneliev that the current National Assembly had a chance to form a government only if there was a political will, but they saw no such political will at the moment.

In the consultations with the nationalist alliance Patriotic Front, the fifth largest group in Parliament, the co-leader Krasimir Karakachanov said they were willing to form a government if the mandate was offered to them.

On 24th of November, the President held the final round of consultations with ABC party and the nationalist Ataka – the two smallest political parties represented in Parliament.

The leader of ABC party Rumen Petkov said after the talks that no new government would be possible in the context of the current Parliament.

Petkov said that provided the three largest parliamentary groups, GERB, BSP and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, all had said that they would not support and would not participate in the formation of a new cabinet, everything else was a PR activity.

After the meeting with the President, Ataka leader Volen Siderov called for the leaders of the Patriotic Front who said were willing to accept the mandate and leader of GERB to sit together at the table like men and seek understanding on forming a government.