The governance programme of the Assen Vassilev cabinet will probably become clear tomorrow

After meetings and negotiations, "We Continue the Change", Bulgarian Socialist Party, (BSP), "Democratic Bulgaria" and the independent MPs who split from "There is Such a People" agreed to structure clear priorities and tasks to work on in the next 6 months. Against this background, the search for support for a majority in Parliament continues.

Some MPs have to decide where their loyalties lie - with their party and leader, or with Bulgaria, outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said on July 5. The ruling are optimistic that they will get the necessary support for a new cabinet. The opposition - GERB and "Vazrazhdane" - claim that they are buying votes of MPs to support the cabinet of Assen Vassilev or not to enter the plenary hall and so with a lower quorum to pass the government.

"We Continue the Change" is not stopping seeking support from more MPs for a majority in Parliament, the outgoing PM said.

The only thing we are sticking to our promise is that we are not talking to the four people we said from the beginning, but all the others have an invitation to talk to us. Several people have to decide who their loyalty is to - to their party and leader, who, in my opinion, has not fulfilled the promise to the people or to all of us to have a responsibility to Bulgaria, to have the chance not to get into a political crisis, said Kiril Petkov.

A new Parliament in the autumn is irretrievably wasted time for Bulgaria, the BSP says.

Both Assen Vassilev and Kiril Petkov are in talks with MPs and independent MPs from “There is Such a People”. I hope that at the end of the day, wisdom and responsibility will be shown, said Philip Popov - BSP MP.

GERB will not support the formation of a new cabinet with the mandate of "We Continue the Change". According to GERB party leader, Boyko Borissov, 10 000 votes per hour are currently being bought because this is the average electoral support for each MP.

The largest vote buying in history is taking place in the Bulgarian Parliament right now. I have to tell you that apart from money for breakaway MPs colossal sums of money are offered to MPs so that that they do not enter to vote and say that they suffered some accident, or that they tripped and fell, in jured their nose ...any story…that would prevent them from entering the whole the hall. They are so clinging to this power that they do not notice at all what is happening around them, said Boyko Borisov - leader of GERB.

"We Continue the Change" and "Democratic Bulgaria" rejected the allegations of vote buying.

GERB is in hysterics because if we manage to secure 121 MPs, the first law we will adopt will be the opne for the anti-corruption commision, which will start investigating the corruption that has been happening for the past 12 years in Bulgaria, said Nastimir Ananiev, MP of “We Continue the Change” group.

Boyko Borissov likes to tell tall tales. It is an extremely serious time to be dealing with such things. He says there is vote-buying, but does not give evidence. Anyone can tell takesl. The chances of a new government being elected are high. Provided that a governance programme is prepared, covering a period of 6 months, something should be done and the most logical is a vote of confidence, said Atanas Atanasov - MP from the Democratic Bulgaria group.

Outgoing Minister of Interior, Boyko Rashkov, commented on GERB's claim that there was police repression in Nova Zagora during the mayoral elections
Borissov and the likes of Borissov have no moral right to talk about elections at all. This ugly phenomenon, the buying and selling of votes, was not created by the Ministry of Interior, but was created in some party headquarters known to you and the whole Bulgarian society. Who have created the respective hoops of companies to finance them, so that there are funds to be distributed with bags, suitcases, etc., said Boyko Rashkov - outgoing Minister of Interior.

"Vazrazhdane" said that Kiril Petkov had called Kostadin Kostadinov ("Vazrazhdane" leader) to seek support for the nomination of Boyko Rashkov as head of the anti-corruption commision.

Yesterday, we received information from three of our MPs that they were contacted by representatives of the ruling majority, who offered them various forms of incentives to motivate them to support Assen Vassilev's government. We are not for sale, said Kostadin Kostadinov, leader of "Vazrazhdane".

Elena Guncheva, an MP who left "Vazrazhdane", said that a conversation was also held with her.

Kiril Petkov has not contacted me, Mr. Manjukov contacted me on behalf of Andrei Gyurov, I told them what my priorities were.They said they will have a programme, they invited me to negotiations, but I will wait to see what they say last, but I am almost 99% sure that I will vote against, she said.

The writing of a programme for the Vassilev cabinet in a race with time continued today.

It contains important bills related to the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the anti-corruption programme, reforms in the judiciary. Changes related to the economy and innovation. We will see if we have 121 MPs to support this, I would say, essential programme for the country, said Miroslav Ivanov – Speaker of the National Assembly.

Work on the structure and composition of the Council of Ministers is expected to start tomorrow.

***

On Saturday, July 2, “We Continue the Change” (WCC) party held talks with the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and “Democratic Bulgaria” to agree on policies and support for the new cabinet it would nominate. The deadline to come up with a proposal for a new cabinet is Friday, July 8.

The talks with BSP and “Democratic Bulgaria” (WCC partners in the outgoing coalition government) were held a day after President Rumen Radev presented “We Continue the Change”, a mandate to form a government.

WCC is seeking support for a government that would have a governance programme for six months.

Assen Vassilev, nominated for Prime Minister by WCC, said on Friday that the party did not yet have the support of the 121 MPs needed to get a government voted into office.

In order to achieve 121, WCC needs not only the support of the BSP and Democratic Bulgaria, but of MPs from other parties in The Parliament as well.

Last week, the leader of BSP, Kornelia Ninova, said she suspend the talks with WCC after outgoing PM Kiril Petkov announced the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats. However, BSP agreed to return to the talks after WCC abandoned their plan to nominate Kiril Petkov as candidate PM and thus met Ninova’s demand.

WCC said it would not hold negotiations with GERB leader Boyko Borissov, “There is Such a People” leader Slavi Trinofonov and “There is Such a People” parliamentary leader Toshko Yordanov, Movement for Rights and Freedoms MP Delyan Peevski and “Vazrazhdane” party leader Kostadin Kostadinov.

If “We Continue the Change” party cannot secure a majority in Parliament, the mandate will be given to the second largest parliamentary group, the opposition GERB-UDF, which, on June 27, said it will not attempt to form a government.

If the second parliamentary group fails to present a cabinet, the President assigns a mandate to a third parliamentary group, at his choice.

If the third attempt to form a cabinet fails, the President then dissolves the Parliament by a decree, sets a new date for early elections and appoints a caretaker government.

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