MPs voted to remove Nikola Minchev from the post of Speaker of Parliament

MPs voted to remove Nikola Minchev from the post of Speaker of Parliament on June 16.

125 MPs voted in favour, 113 against and one abstained.

Even after the requested re-vote, the result was the same and Nikola Minchev was dismissed from the post of Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament.

It was, is and will continue to be, an honour to have entered the National Assembly in the first place and an even greater honour to have been made first among equals, Nikola Minchev said at the end of the debate in plenary on his early release.

We are all elected here by the people - like it or not, we are here and we represent them, Minchev said.

We all know that the real reason for asking for my resignation is the same as for asking for the vote of no confidence. There is a new majority in the plenary. Not only does it not bring change, but it will preserve this pattern, and it is perhaps better that I am not the Speaker in such a Parliament, because it turns out that those who were going to "scratch" (referring the governannc model of GERB) now want to "scratch" me.

It was an honour for me, and if we have to elect a new Speaker, I wish he would be at least as objective as I tried to be, Minchev said in conclusion.

Minchev's statement was followed by a round of applause from the MPs of "We Continue the Change".

The motion for the removal of Nikola Minchev from the post was submitted by 120 MPs from former coalition partner “There is Such a People” (TISP), the opposition GERB-UDF, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and “Vazrazhdane” party.

The motives of TISP included "continuous failure to perform the duties of the Speaker, systematic and flagrant violation of the Parliament’s rules of procedure and overstepping his rights".