Sixth Vote of No Confidence: Parliament Supported a Government Which Has Already Resigned

The sixth vote of no confidence in the Zhelyazkov cabinet has failed. A total of 106 MPs voted “in favour”, with none voting “against” and none abstaining.

The procedure was scheduled to begin at 13:30, but There Is Such a People requested a 30-minute break before the vote. The motion was tabled by We Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria and supported by Alliance for rights and Freedoms and MECH.

Protest against the government

This is the sixth vote of no confidence against the Zhelyazkov government, brought over what the opposition described as its failure in economic policy.

The no-confidence motion was submitted December 7 by WE Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria and was backed by the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) and the Morality, Unity, Honour (MECh) party.

Yesterday, the debate lasted for around five hours. The heated exchanges in the chamber centred on both the drafting of the budget and the management of the security services. Vazrazhdane and Velichie also announced that they would back the motion, albeit for their own reasons.

Due to a lack of quorum, the sitting was adjourned.

PM Rosen Zhelyazkov: The Government Resigns

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The Cabinet led by Prime minister Rosen zhelyazkov has survived five previous no-confidence votes during nearly 12 month in office:

The first vote was initiated by Vazrazhdane for failure in the foreign policy sector, followed by one submitted by Morality, Unity, Honour (MECH) for failure in the fight against corruption, then third one tabled by Vazrazhdane and backed by Velichie and MECh for failure in the area of fiscal policy, the fourth, submitted by Velichie and backed by MECh and Vazrazhdane, for failure in the environment and water management sector and a fifth one, over failures in the sectors of internal security and justice, tabled by the We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (WCC-DB) and MECH, and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF).