On the 73rd day after the early parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, the people's representatives failed to elect a regular government, and the first exploratory mandate given to GERB-SDS remained unused. The proposed cabinet of the neurosurgeon Prof. Nikolay Gabrovski was rejected with 125 votes from "We Continue the Change", "Vazrazhdane", the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Democratic Bulgaria, and 113 MPs from GERB-SDS, MRF and "Bulgarian Rise" voted in his support.
At the beginning of the parliamentary sitting, the candidate for prime minister Nikolay Gabrovski stated:
"We assume the responsibility of forming a regular government with the full conviction that it is necessary to quickly overcome the public division, restore the dialogue between the parties, end the political crisis and avoid a cascade of early elections, restore trust in the institutions, achieving a public consensus for the implementation of judicial reform."
He highlighted seven priorities, including adopting a package of anti-crisis measures in the new state budget, combating corruption, implementing key reforms, including through the Recovery and Resilience Plan, making efforts for Bulgaria’s entry into Schengen and in the Euro zone. "Let the love for Bulgaria prevail", urged Nikolay Gabrovski.
"This cabinet is an opportunity for all political forces and should not be rejected lightly," said the chairman of the parliamentary group of GERB-SDS Desislava Atanasova. According to her, the only possibility to stabilize statehood is "a government with a program, clear priorities and maximum broad support".
The chairman of the parliamentary group of "We continue the change" Andrey Gyurov stated that the proposed cabinet did not fulfill the most important condition - to be able to bear political responsibility. In his words, this cabinet reeks of remnants from the triple coalition* , and the main goal is the local elections, so that the backstage governance can keep its feudal possessions”.
The leader of the MRF, Mustafa Karadayi, defined today's decision as "fatal" given the war, the economic crisis, and the lack of operational programs. "We are making a huge compromise, we want to give a chance for the crises to be resolved," he said and called on everyone to unite around common priorities.
"The formation of a cabinet should not be at any cost," declared the leader of "Vazrazhdane" Kostadin Kostadinov. He emphasized that the parliament only deals with its own problems. "Instead of making the right elections, we started scaring people with new elections," the deputy added.
The leader of the BSP, Кornelia Ninova, explained the negative vote for the proposed GERB-SDS cabinet with the words: "For 6 years we have been fighting to change the GERB model, which we called a ``parallel state'' - disrespect for the separation of powers, behind-the-scenes taking of decisions, growth of poverty and inequalities and lack of justice.”
"This government looks like an official cabinet selected elsewhere, we do not see in the proposed line-up a resource for deep reforms", said the co-chairman of "Democratic Bulgaria" Hristo Ivanov, stressing that the parliamentary group cannot support a cabinet mandated by GERB and dependent on MRF.
The leader of "Bulgarian Rise" Stefan Yanev explained that the formation will support the candidacy of Nikolay Gabrovski for prime minister, but will vote "against" the proposed structure and composition of the cabinet, since it is not clear who will bear the political responsibility.
After heated debates, 238 people's representatives out of a total of 240 took part in the voting on the proposals of the GERB-SDS cabinet.
At a short briefing after the vote, prof. Gabrovski commented that he was not optimistic about what lies ahead for Bulgaria. "Maybe we will spend a year from election to election, which is sad," predicted the professor.
From now on, according to the country's legislation, the second exploratory mandate of "We Continue the Cahnge" is to be handed over.
*The triple coalition - cabinet with Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev and with the participation of BSP, NDSV and MRF, governed in the period 2005-2009.
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