Parliament rejected the draft cabinet proposed by GERB-UDF's nomination for PM Nikolai Gabrovski

The MPs on December 14 rejected the draft cabinet proposed by GERB-UDF's nomination for Prime Minister Nikoliy Gabrovski. After 3 hours of debate, 113 MPs voted in favour, 125 voted against.

Prime Minister-designate Prof. Nikolai Gabrovski urged the MPs to override their narrow partisan interest and vote a government of experts and professionals.

He said that the line-up of the government he proposed was made up of people who were experts in the areas they were assigned and had no obvious political affiliation.

From the parliamentary rostrum, Gabrovski said that he had taken the responsibility in order to end the spiral of successive early elections, to restore trust in the institutions as well as dialogue between the parties.

Bulgaria is not just at a crossroads, but at a precipice, Gabrovski said. He added that there is a desire to move to the expert, professional. The people I propose are ready to work from day one. This is the only way to continue towards Schengen and the Eurozone. Claims of a great chance of forming a government with another mandate are wrong. The best chance we have is today, here and now, Gabrovski said.

Let the love for Bulgaria prevail today, he urged.

The chairwoman of the largest parliamentary group of GERB-UDF, Desislava Atanasova, said that the choice of people for the draft cabinet goes beyond political bias, as the political elite is not able to elect a standard coalition or single-party government. Prof. Gabrovski and his cabinet can offer an anti-crisis stabilisation programme. This draft cabinet is an opportunity for all political forces and this opportunity should not be dismissed lightly. According to Atanasova, this may be the only opportunity to elect a working government within the 48th National Assembly.

She pointed out that the first task of the Gabrovski cabinet will be the submission of a draft budget for 2023, so it will become clear how sincere the parties are who are calling on the caretaker cabinet to submit one. Apart from being a reaching hand, the Gabrovski cabinet draft is a message. It promises pragmatism, no over-expectations, but real opportunities with real results. It does not open new wounds but will try to heal the old ones, Atanasova said.

The chairman of "We Continue the Change" group, Andrei Gyurov accused GERB-UDF and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) of having overthrown the previous government, while half a million people supported them on October 2 snap elections.

"We Continue the Change" will not support the cabinet proposed by GERB. For 2 months the Bulgarian citizens expected the Parliament and the caretaker government to draw up a budget, to take decisive action in the direction of real and deep judicial reform and efforts to join Schengen. Instead, the Parliament was busy with the re-introduction of the paper ballot in eldctions. Today, you are offering us a government that does not fulfil the most important condition - being able to be politically accountable. We are being offered an expert cabinet, but we have our doubts here. Every cabinet is political, because it must be nominated and supported by political figures, said Andrei Gyurov.

According to him, the draft cabinet reeks of mothballs from the triple coalition and from the GERB backbench. The big goal, in his words, are the local elections, so that the backstage can maintain its feudal holdings. He accused GERB of copying much of the announced programme from the one of "We Continue the Change".

The chairman of MRF group, Mustafa Karadayi, defined today as a historic day, key for the future of the country, in view of the war in Ukraine, the economic crisis, the lack of operational programmes. This requires responsible statesmanship and party compromises. Today we can all unite with common priorities.

It is easiest to say "No" to Gabrovski's government, Karadayi said. The alternative, however, is early elections, which would replicate the current situation, putting the future of the state at risk. We are making a huge compromise, we want to give the crises a chance to be solved, the chairman of the MRF group said.

Kostadin Kostadinov, chairman of "Vazrazhdane" group, said that at the moment the Bulgarian people do not trust the state.

"I did not hear the word independence, freedom, democracy. When our democracy began to develop in the 90s, these were the main words that were used. 32 years after the first free elections in Bulgaria we now accept elections as a threat, elections are a risk only in totalitarian societies," Kostadinov said.

He summarised that the "Vazrazhdane" party would not support the Gabrovski draft cabinet because the policies it proposed were not ones that the party would support. He called for early elections as the current Parliament cannot elect a working cabinet.

Yavor Bozhankov, expelled from the BSP group, said that he could not support the proposed cabinet despite the efforts they had made.

BSP for Bulgaria chairperson Kornelia Ninova confirmed that they would not support the Gabrovski cabinet. For 6 years we have been fighting to change the GERB model. Already in 2017 we called this model a "parallel state" - disrespect for the separation of powers, backstage decision-making, growth of poverty and inequality and lack of justice, Ninova said.

We are facing multiple crises - economic, social, energy, demographic. We are aware of how important it is to form a regular cabinet and keep the Parliament working, Ninova said. We have 2 tasks and 2 opportunities - to continue the fight against the parallel state and to take the country through the crises. That is why BSP sees an opportunity for a government in the second and third mandate, Ninova added.

We cannot support this government, the idea proposed as a format and as a political platform for governing the country, Hristo Ivanov of “Democratic Bulgaria” said from the parliamentary rostrum. In his words, today requires a question of what to do.

"Bulgaria needs a profound change, because without this the political crisis cannot be solved," Hristo Ivanov added.

We will support prof. Gabrovski as a candidate for Prime Minister. At the same time, the “Bulgaria Ascending” group will not support the proposed structure and line-up of the cabinet, as there is no clarity who will bear the political responsibility. Going to elections should not scare us, leader of "Bulgaria Ascending", Stefan Yanev said.

He added that at the beginning of the 48th National Assembly, most of the representatives of the political forces expressed hope and responsibility that they are in the parliament to solve problems, to propose solutions. We were almost unanimous that dialogue was at the basis of these solutions.

Today, when we have to vote on the structure and composition of the Council of Ministers, we see the results of this dialogue, to what extent it has succeeded. Yanev congratulated GERB-UDF for the nomination of prof. Gabrovski as a sign of openness to civil society. It is time for us to make more such gestures and be open to civil society, the leader of "Bulgaria Ascending" urged.

The goal is for this government to lead the country through the crisis. According to the clear statements made, 4 parties - "We Continue the Change", "Democratic Bulgaria", BSP and "Vazrazhdane" firmly stand against it.

Images by Dessislava Kulelieva

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