Is the cabinet composition becoming clear after the consultations of WCC and BSP?

Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev on December 6 opened consultations with the parliamentary represented parties as part of the procedure for forming a government. "We Continue the Change" party, which is the winner in the November 14 parliamentary elections and the largest group in the 47th Parliament, hopes to receive the mandate to form a government as soon as possible, but it became clear that the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) has remarks on the coalition agreement.

Bulgaria’s President started the consultations on forming a new government

Information leaked to the media revealed the distribution of ministries outlined in the coalition agreement.

"We Continue the Change” (WCC) will nominate the candidate for Prime Minister. This is expected to be Kiril Petkov. There will be two deputy prime ministers: for effective governance and finance. Assen Vassilev applied for Minister of Finance.

WCC will also nominate ministers for: Ministry of Education and Science; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence; Ministry of Transport and Communications; Ministry of Growth and Innovation and Ministry of Culture.

According to the agreement released in the media, the BSP will have a Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Industry. BSP will nominate ministers for: Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of Agriculture and Tourism. BSP leader Kornelia Ninova today did not confirm the information that she would be the Deputy Prime Minister from BSP.

"There is Such a People” is expected to be without a Deputy Prime Minister. The party of TV presenter, Slavi Trifonov, is expected to nominate the ministerial posts for the Ministries of Energy, Foreign Affairs, Regional Development and Public Works and Sports.

According to media reports, the fourth coalition partner, Democratic Bulgaria, will have a Deputy Prime Minister for environment and water, and will head the justice ministry and e-governance.

During the presidential consultations, WCC confirmed there would be two new ministries and the fact that there will be four Deputy Prime Ministers, but did not name any. BSP leader Kornelia Ninova announced that they have remarks on the coalition agreement and that there was speculation that she would head the Ministry of State Enterprises.

President Rumen Radev reminded that it is time to form a regular government.

He welcomed WCC with the message that the trust of Bulgarians after three parliamentary elections in a year is not given for free.

President Radev said that an effective coalition government can exist only if there is mutual respect between the partners. He also said that the time of the Prime Minister ruling single-handedly has ended and the hope of such a rule being restored was firmly rejected by the citizens at the elections.

The coalition agreement between "We Continue the Change", "BSP for Bulgaria", “There is Such a People” and Democratic Bulgaria has been sent to the formations for approval, said Kiril Petkov.

We managed to prepare a document, a coalition document that was finalised last night at midnight and was sent to all our future coalition partners, which summarized all these joint talks on the basis of all the topics we discussed during these discussions, plus the format we expect a future government to be formed, said Kiril Petkov, co-chairman of "We Continue the Change".

Petkov declined to name ministers. But he acknowledged the structural changes.

The Ministry of Economy plus one or two other state-owned enterprises will be divided into two, so that there will be one ministry that will be on innovation and growth and the other ministry will be on state-owned enterprises.

The nominee for a future prime ministerial candidate from a possible quadruple coalition expects to receive a mandate to form a government this week.

It will certainly be this week, we hope, but it also depends, of course, on the response of our coalition partners.

The BSP leader, who is emerging as the second coalition partner in the four-party future coalition, has not said whether she would head one of the two new ministries.

The agreement proposes a structure of the future government, ministries and their areas of works. It mentions the creation of a ministry of economy and industry, and not of a ministry of State-owned enterprises, Ninova said.

Ninova announced that she has remarks on the coalition agreement.

All matters related to future ministries will be discussed later with the coalition partners. Today we are focused on the coalition agreement. Late last night, we received it, we looked at it in our expert groups and politically, we have some remarks on it. We have already met with Kiril Petkov and Asen Vassilev immediately after the meeting with the President, we discussed them, until tonight, we continue with this, she said.

The four formations that have been negotiating for the past two weeks agree on 90% of sectoral policies and priorities, WCC announced. What are the 10%, on which there disagreements and what are the red lines – remains unclear.

The next round of consultations between the President and the parliamentary groups will be held tomorrow, December 7, when Radev will
talk with TISP, Democratic Bulgaria, and Vazrazhdane.

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