Tension in Bulgaria’s Parliament after TISP left the coalition government

There was ongoing tension in Parliament on June 10 after "There is Such a People" (TISP) left the coalition government. "We Continue the Change" announced that they will seek other MPs to support the proposed budget update.

Political reactions after TISP party left the coalition government

Slavi Trifonov: I withdraw the ministers of "There is Such a People" and put an end to this coalition

A major topic on the sidelines today was whether Prime Minister Kiril Petkov had met with an MP from TISP to change his beliefs. This was first announced on the air of "The Day Begins" programme on BNT by TISP Deputy Chair, Iva Miteva.

Late last night, PM Kiril Petkov, called our MP, Kiril Simeonov, to persuade him to reconsider his conduct. I do not accept such ethics. This is not morality for me, Miteva said.

BNT: Will he reconsider his behaviour?

Iva Miteva, TISP PG: No. Absolutely, not. So I urge Mr Petkov and the people around him not to call our MPs and try to persuade them one way or the other.

Yesterday I received a call from Mr Kiril Petkov asking to see me. We then had a short meeting, in which he offered me absolutely nothing, I am being completely frank, neither posts nor money or any such things. We just talked and he told me that if I could reconsider my position, in order to not throw the country into chaos, said Kiril Simeonov, PG of TISP.

Kiril Petkov is Tatyana Doncheva in trousers. In the past, she offered 500 K, he now offers a bright future and in both cases, for me, this is corruption. Yes, Kiril Petkov has spoken to our MPs, not just one. I cannot vouch for a single person in the world how they would react in a dire situation. I trust and believe in our parliamentary group and that we are here for a cause and not to be bought one by one, said Toshko Yordanov, PG of TISP.

Andrei Gyurov, PG of “We Continue the Change”: I cannot comment on whether it is a lie, whether there was a meeting. My name is not Kiril, so I was not on either side of that meeting. I suppose there could have been a meeting, I can't really confirm. But what I want to make clear is that we have said that there are a number of key priorities facing the country at the moment and we have objectives that we need to achieve in this Parliament. They are, first of all, the adoption of the proposed budget update, helping citizens, helping families, helping working parents, helping pensioners. That is priority number one.

Denitsa Sacheva, GERB-UDF: We thought that the hatred towards GERB was what kept this coalition united, but in fact it turned out that they hate each other and they hate each other very much. So, for us the surprise remains how a coalition that claimed to have zero tolerance for corruption, a few months later fell apart with mutual accusations of corruption.

The tension was heightened after the “There is Such a People” and “We Continue the
Change” groups on the sidelines of the Parliament exchanged criticisms and accusations related to the drafting of the draft law on changes to the law on the anti-corruption commission.

This darft law was stalled with backstage games and absurd ultimatums that would have made the work of the anti-corruption commison it creates impossible by persons representing the political leadership of TISP. Behind their demands, there is a fear of an integrity probe, bringing light on their assets, interests and dependencies. They wanted to have their own person on the commission with veto power over decisions on who should be checked and investigated and who should not, said Milen Mateev, PG of “We Continue the Change”.

It's nice to have four people and it's nice that they make the decisions with full consensus. Not one of us having the right of a veto. To avoid exactly that - a political formation being able to settle scores with opposition members. “We Continue the Change” and Kiril Petkov want to organize their own Geshev (referring to the Chief Prosecutor) to use him for whatever they can think of. Little Führers, whether they are from Bankya (referring to the birth town of former PM Boyko Borissov) or Canada (referring to where PM Kiril Petkov came from), they will still be Führers, said Toshko Yordanov, PG of TISP.

TISP hopes that there will be no delay in voting their cabinet ministers' resignations. Otherwise, they said, the work of the ministries may come to a standstill.