Election of Speaker of Parliament is postponed until after Easter

The election of Speaker of the National Assembly is postponed until after Easter.

After failing to elect the 49th National Assembly Speaker yesterday, MPs gathered again on April 13 in the plenary hall in an attempt to repeat the election. Today’s sitting was very short. Yesterday afternoon, after talks between GERB-UDF and WCC-DB, it became clear that first they will continue with talks on the legislative priorities of the parliamentary groups, and the election of the Speaker will in fact depend on them.

This morning, April 13, the presiding MP, Vezhdi Rashidov, asked in the plenary if there were any more nominations for the post of Parliament Speaker. When none were indicated, Rashidov announced that he would call the MPs back together on Wednesday, at 10.00, after the Easter holidays.

Currently, there are two nominations for Parliament speaker - of Rosen Zhelyazkov from GERB-UDF and of Petar Petrov from "Vazrazhdane". At the opening sitting on April 12, none of the two got enough support. The WCC-DB alliance have not formally submitted a nomination, but after the Parliament failed to elect a Speaker yesterday, they proposed that rotational Speaker be elected, with GERB-UDF and WCC-DB taking turns.

This morning GERB-UDF leader Boyko Borissov announced that he wants to form a government with the WCC-DB.

"We have very clear tasks - a government between these two parties, we are doing everything possible, despite Atanas Atanasov. Today we will make 2 committees of the two groups - GERB - UDF and WCC-DB - legal and financial-budgetary to consider a budget programme. Our main priority is a government between GERB and WCC. We are ready for many compromises," Boyko Borissov said.

The co-chairman of "We Continue the Change" Kiril Petkov said that he hoped that the next step would be taken by sending working groups of WCC-DB and GERB to discuss the legislative programme set as a basis to see if the option of the rotating chairmanship of the National Assembly could work. In response to a question by BNT whether an agreement on a government could be found, Petkov clarified that it was only a question of a common legislative programme.

Today, GERB-UDF is continuing policy talks with other parliamentary forces.

Movement for Rights and Freedoms leader, Mustafa Karadayi, who was at a meeting with the GERB-UDF leadership, said that what is different about the start of this Parliament is that this time there are talks between the two largest forces. He expressed hope that these talks would lead to a constructive dialogue, which is what the MRF is insisting on.

Karadayi reminded, however, that although most parties call for judicial reform, there are different views on what it should be, and for any judicial reform to happen, it is necessary to secure a constitutional majority.

BSP leader, Kornelia Ninova, reiterated the Socialists' position that they would not support the nomination of Rosen Zhelyazkov (of GERB-UDF).

She described the proposal of "We Continue the Change" for a rotating chairmanship of the National Assembly as a "strange hybrid".