President Rumen Radev invites GERB-UDF to consultations on October 26

"Tomorrow, October 26, I invite the largest parliamentary group, GERB-UDF, to consultations. I will not rush the consultations and the handing out of the mandates," President Rumen Radev said on October 25. The meeting with GERB-UDF is scheduled for 13:00.

In his words, the Parliament has a lot of work to do.

"I expect the parties to take their responsibility and not to make the mistake of the previous Parliament, when the issue of power obsessed the entire activity of the National Assembly, the Parliament sank into scandals, which invalidated its activity. It is particularly important to do everything possible to create the necessary environment in Parliament so that the State Budget Law and the many laws waiting to be adopted are carefully examined," Radev added.

Whether he was optimistic about forming a cabinet he said he would answer after the consultations and the handing over of the first mandate. He described a minority cabinet as a difficult task. Machine voting has played a huge role in eliminating invalid ballots and contributed to curbing vote-buying, he said.

In his words, if paper ballots are brought back it means a drastic increase in invalid votes and repeatedly corrected election papers and protocols.

Regarding the provision of military-technical assistance to Ukraine, Radev commented that this increases the risk of involving Bulgaria in the war. I call for reason and responsibility, the provision will deepen the deficit of the Bulgarian army's capabilities for a long period of time, in which the security environment is deteriorating, the President explained.

He outlined several important priorities around the 2023 budget - not to cut social payments, salaries and pensions, not to allow the budget deficit to increase and not to allow the budget consideration to become a marketplace for electioneering. According to Radev, effective interaction between the government and the National Assembly is needed.

The Bulgarian parliamentary political system is heading towards a crisis and the way to get out of it is to restore the trust of the Bulgarian citizens in parliamentarism - this currently means forming committees and discussing the budget as a priority, the President further said.

Rumen Radev participated today in a conference dedicated to 30 years since Bulgaria's accession to the European Convention on Human Rights". The forum is being held under the patronage of the Head of State.

Vice President Iliana Iotova will also attend the conference. At the invitation of President Rumen Radev, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, is arriving to Sofia to take part in the forum.

The conference is organized on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Bulgaria's membership in the Council of Europe and of the ratification of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and focuses on the commitment of the Bulgarian institutions to the protection of human rights and the challenges Bulgaria faces as a party to the Convention.