Iva Miteva from "There is Such a People" party is elected as Speaker of Bulgaria’s new Parliament

The MPs from the 46th National Assembly on July 21 elected Iva Miteva from "There is Such a People" party as Speaker of Parliament.

Her nomination was supported by 137 votes in favour, one voted against and 99 abstained.

Iva Miteva was proposed for the post by “There is Such a People “ party, the largest parliamentary group.

Miteva was Speaker of the 45th National Assembly.

She graduated in Law from Sofia University. She has a number of post graduate qualifications and extensive experience in the administration of Bulgaria’s Parliament. She teaches law at New Bulgarian University.

The chair of the BSP for Bulgaria, Kornelia Ninova, proposed Christian Vigenin as Speaker of Parliament.

There were no proposals from other parties represented in Parliament for the post of the Speaker.

Before the nomination of Christian Vigenin was voted, a statement was made by the BSP for Bulgaria MP Georgi Kadiev about his negative vote, which he explained with the lack of talks between "There is Such a People" and the other parties. According to Kadiev, “There is Such a People” are the winners of these elections and they should take the initiative.

The reason why our parliamentary group does not support Iva Miteva is because there are no talks. And that will be the reason why we do not support the government proposed by you, he added.

After the election of a Speaker of the National Assembly, each parliamentary group put forward a Deputy Speaker.

In the 46th National Assembly, these are Viktoria Vassileva (There is Such a People), Rositsa Kirova (GERB-UDF), Christian Vigenin (BSP), Atanas Atanassov (Democratic Bulgaria), Mukades Nalbant (MRF) and Tatyana Doncheva (“Rise Up BG! We are coming”).

All proposals were voted unanimously, after which the Deputy Speakers took their seats.

images by Dessislava Kulelieva, BNT