FIRST SITTING OF BULGARIA's NEWLY ELECTED NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

On the 27th of October 2014 аt 14:00, the 43rd National Assembly of Bulgaria held its first sitting on the basis of a decree issued by the President Rosen Plevneliev.

The first sitting was opened by the oldest Member of Parliament, the 71 year old MP from Bulgarian Socialist Party, Stefan Danailov, a well known actor and former Minister of Culture.

The MPs took an oath with the following wording: "In the name of the Republic of Bulgaria, I swear to observe the Constitution and the laws of the country and in all my actions to be guided by the interests of the people. I have sworn."

The national anthem of Bulgaria and the anthem of the European Union were then played in the plenary hall.

After that, President Rosen Plevneliev made an address to the nation and the National Assembly, where he outlined the priorities for the next Parliament. He called for "reaching a broad political consensus, implementing urgent anti-crisis actions and very important structural reforms".

The 8 parliamentary groups declared their priorities for the 4 year term of the National Assembly.

At this first sitting, the members of the National Assembly appointed Tsetska Tsacheva from GERB as the Chairperson. 219 MPs voted in favour,  12 voted against and 1 abstained. As a next step, the National Assembly elected the Deputy Chairpersons (one from each parliamentary group).

As a result of the elections on the 5th of October, the centre-right party GERB won 84 seats in Parliament, the centre-left BSP – 39, MRF – 38, the centre-right Reformist Bloc – 23, the nationalist alliance “Patriotic Front “ – 19, the populist coalition “Bulgaria without Censorship” – 15, the nationalist party “Ataka”- 11 and the centre-left “ABC”- 11.