President Holds Talks with Second Largest Political Force WCC-DB as Bulgaria Restarts Process to Form Government

Consultations with the President on forming a government with the political parties represented in the 51st National Assembly began today, December 15. The constitutional procedure started sgain after Parliament accepted the resignation of the Zhelyazkov cabinet on Friday.

The first delegation to meet President Rumen Radev was from GERB–SDS, represented by Denitsa Sacheva. Consultations with the 'We Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria' (WCC–DB) coalition began at 11:30.

“Our country is in a complex political situation, with a government that was forced to resign,” President Radev said. He called on WCC–DB to outline their views on the key issue of the budget. He also asked whether they had a position on the timing of elections and whether they would initiate changes to the Electoral Code.

Asen Vasilev said he believed the current government should submit an extension budget law, to be adopted before the end of the year, so that “there is certainty for all Bulgarian citizens”. He expressed hope that the government would be able to submit the bill later this week.

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“As far as a new government within the current Parliament is concerned, we believe this is impossible and undesirable. Citizens protested against the model of governance associated with Borissov and Peevski. That model must be dismantled, and bringing down the government is only part of the first step,” Asen Vasilev said.

Bozhidar Bozhanov said changes to the Electoral Code were needed to introduce comprehensive machine voting. WCC–DB will seek consensus on this issue.

President Radev backed the idea of full machine voting, so that “the scandals with invalid protocols and ballots finally come to an end”.

“We must approach everything that is happening in the country in a statesmanlike way,” said Ivaylo Mirchev.

“We still have several important tasks in this parliament. The removal of security protection for Peevski and for all MPs. This must be brought to an end, which is why we have convened an extraordinary committee to see who has the will in the National Assembly,” Mirchev said. He also called for Peevski to be “removed from Todor Zhivkov’s former office”. This was symbolic, he explained, adding that 30 years later Bulgaria was returning to times it had supposedly left behind.

Rumen Radev agreed and said he was also in favour of not abusing a number of institutions.

photos by Dessislava Kulelieva, BNT

Athanass Athanassov asked President Radev whether he would run in the elections, adding: “Are we now talking to the President or to a competitor?”

“We are here to hold consultations. We have not gathered to chat about some hypothetical party of mine,” President Radev replied. He again stressed that he did not want these consultations to turn into an election campaign.