Leaders of first and second largest parliamentary groups met, Borissov asked WCC-DB to present their proposal on a government line-up, WCC-DB consider talk about governance programme

The first and second largest groups in Bulgaria's Parliament, GERB-UDF and “We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria”, held a meeting in Parliament on on April 25 to discuss the possibly on the formation of a cabinet.

“We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria” (WCC-DB) will consult their party bodies on whether to participate in the work on a joint governance programme on which a future government will be based. This became clear after the leadership meeting between the two largest parliamentary groups.

At the beginning of the meeting Boyko Borissov said that GERB-UDF and WCC-DB should find a way to form a government, whether with the first or the second mandate.

"We believe that in the current situation we have to find a way to form a government whether with the first or the second mandate, because otherwise we are going to new elections in June or July, which will give the same result and we will find ourselves again in the same negotiations," Borissov said.

WCC-DB alliance reiterated that they have a decision of their parties not to support a government with the mandate of GERB-UDF.

GERB leader Boyko Borissov asked WCC-DB to present a draft cabinet line-up that they would propose in the second mandate, so that GERB-UDF could more easily decide how to proceed with the first mandate.

“It doesn't matter whether this will be done on the first or second mandate, the important thing is to have a working government. Mr Petkov and I have forgiven each other, so there is nothing in our relationship that prevents whatever it is from doing a good job. If you propose a cabinet and we like it, that is another topic of conversation. If you have had talks with the other parties, you should tell us that too," Borissov said.

WCC-DB replied that before discussing the line-up of a cabinet, it was important to specify the policies that the government will do. Assen Vassilev suggested that the two parties should work on a government programme.

"We need to develop a governance programme that tells a government what to do. Let's consult with the party bodies and see if such a process is possible - let's propose talks on the government programme first," Vassilev said.

"This is the real discussion - these governments are based on only one thing - they can do the job or not," added Kiril Petkov.

Whether this will happen will become clear after discussion in their governing bodies.

"The situation is non-standard, therefore the proposals are non-standard and the solutions are non-standard. In this case, the first and second are irrelevant. You can see for yourselves - if we do not agree on the budget, and we can only agree that it is a 3% deficit and that it is consolidated, on who else will we rely," Borissov asked.

Borissov raised the issue of the urgent adoption of Budget 2023 and asked WCC-DB what their views were in this area.

The co-chairman of "We Continue the Change" Kiril Petkov said that regarding the formation of a government - what WCC-DB has as a mandate from the parties and voters is that as a first mandate, WCC-DB cannot support a government.

"But we are ready to talk and see within the framework of responsible behaviour what we can achieve as policies, especially on the subject of the budget. It is important for us to achieve a 3% deficit without raising taxes and cutting the social programme. We are open to talking about other sectoral policies - such as energy, judicial reform. We came to this meeting to talk about these reforms. We are aware that we have to talk about the budget and we have to talk about it responsibly," Petkov said.

GERB's Tomislav Donchev said that achieving a 3% deficit is not a matter of technical details, but requires some unpopular reforms and asked if there is a majority to support these reforms.

Kiril Petkov expressed hope that the laws, which GERB-UDF and WCC-DB had agreed on the legislative programme of the 49th National Assembly, would be moved forward.

"If in these next days we manage to pass these draft laws in committees and in the chamber, it will be a very good first step, which will show that we are moving from words to actions," Petkov said.

Images by Dessislava Kulelieva, BNT

Desislava Atanasova of GERB-UDF pointed out that the majority that the two groups could form together in parliamentary committees, could start considering the most important bills next week in parallel with the consideration of the details of the state budget. Therefore, they propose that the working groups between the two formations continue to work in parallel with the work of the parliamentary committees.

The two coalitions are ready to jointly table the domestic violence bill today, which would be a sign that there is a will for the two formations to start working together on the legislative agenda, she said.

Atanasova confirmed that GERB-UDF will support the caretaker government's bill on the investigation of the prosecutor general and there is no disagreement with WCC-DB on this topic. They will also support the bill splitting the anti-corruption commission into two. The detail is that the GERB-UDF have declared support for the bill submitted by the Council of Ministers and WCC stick to their own, so it will also be considered. She also reminded that they are awaiting the latest draft bills on Recovery and Resilience Plan from the caretaker government.

The President's decision to delay the handing over of the mandates to give parliament time to pass a budget that does not put the country into a debt crisis and new borrowing is also expected to be part of the agenda of the talks.

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