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New parliamentary season in Bulgaria starts with known intentions and old political clashes

БНР Новини
Photo: BGNES

In the first day of the new plenary session of the Bulgarian parliament the representatives of the 8 parties in the National Assembly presented their priorities for the coming months. Most of them agreed that priorities were a new strategy in the judicial reform, changes in the pension system, education, etc.

The parliamentary group of the GERB party would support the updated strategy for reforms in the judicial system. Security will also be a priority in the new plenary session.

"Social policy, education and healthcare also remain our major priorities. Combating vote buying also continues to be an important topic. We have been having some serious discussions about introducing compulsory voting. We should all work for stability in the country. I wish everyone understanding, patience and tolerance,” said the chairman of the parliamentary group of GERB Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

GERB pointed out that the upcoming local elections in the autumn will be a test not only for people's attitude towards the government but the vote will also be used to find out the opinion of citizens on possible changes to the election laws.

Yanaki Stoilov of BSP – Bulgarian Left criticized the fact that the government does not have a clear program yet.

"The government does not provide a direction or a perspective for the citizens. There is no vision for a new model of socio-economic development of the country and the European Union. Our task is to fill in these gaps. We will be firm when it comes to protecting the interests of working people, the rights of all Bulgarian citizens. "

MRF leader Lutfi Mestan drew a parallel between the recent terrorist attack in Paris and the participation of the Patriotic Front in the government of Bulgaria:

"Our political, civic and purely human worries caused by the presence of national-populist Patriotic Front in the government have acquired new dimensions. We have expressed the opinion that if PF continued to be part of the ruling coalition, the best solution would be new early parliamentary elections. This is neither hidden ambition for power, nor a form of jealousy."

The Reformist Bloc has called for amendments to the Law on the Judiciary and the formation of majority supporting constitutional changes.

"We must make an effort to put Bulgaria back on the track of reforms and turn promises in our program into activities and measures," said co-chair of the parliamentary group of the Reformist Bloc Radan Kanev.

The ABC party said that during their participation in the ruling coalition they witnessed some poor examples of decision-making.

The Patriotic Front supported the creation of a government that is not only to identify various problems in Bulgaria, but would be also looking for ways of solving them.

"We continue to insist on the complete removal of the MRF from the power structures and the introduction of compulsory voting," he added.

The Bulgarian Democratic Centre sees in the dynamic majority of this Parliament a possibility of making important legislative changes that would improve the lives of people.

As expected, Ataka leader Volen Siderov was skeptical about the country's future under this government:

"In 2015 I do not expect anything from this government other than mismanagement, colonialism and creating misery for the Bulgarian people," he said.

A key element in the declarations of most formations was condemning the terrorist acts in Paris. The leader of Ataka, however, said that what happened was theatrical production.

English: Alexander Markov



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