Disregard for parliamentary traditions marks a dangerous regression in Bulgarian politics

published on 11/12/24 1:56 PM

Photo: Reuters

The first sitting of the newly elected National Assembly has ended. As in the last three Bulgarian parliaments, the election of a speaker proved to be a serious challenge, as neither of the two candidates - Raya Nazarian of GERB-SDS and Andrei Tsekov of PP-DB - who won the most votes and made it to the ballot, received the necessary support to become the new first among equals.

"The Speaker of the National Assembly should be a person who can ensure that the processes in the National Assembly run smoothly, both in terms of electing a new government and launching a new legislative programme. It is a unique and often thankless position - this person should be balanced, neutral" - recalled Georgi Pirinski, Speaker of the National Assembly in 2005-2009, in an interview for BNR.

According to him, the first hours of work of the 51st National Assembly did not send a positive message to the citizens:

"In their speeches, the leaders of the political parties in the National Assembly should have expressed their willingness to seek support not only for their own position, but also for the cross section where there could be conversation and an outstretched hand for dialogue that would enable a positive outcome at the start of the parliament," Pirinski explained. This would have made it possible to achieve a positive result from the very first day of Parliament," he said.

"The (non-)election of the Speaker will give us an idea of how work will proceed from now on," added political scientist Ivan Nachev:

"Since the last full-term parliament we have had many political players, but none of them has been able to stay in power. Trust is eroding because of the lack of responsibility and the inability of the leading party to cooperate. This leaves room for new political opportunists in the future. It is now naive to think that a party can win a majority sufficient to govern, even in a coalition with only one political partner.

To get out of the political impasse, reason is essential, believes constitutional law expert Borislav Tzekov.

"If not, they will all become useless and the "Putin" scenario will come into force, where Rumen Radev seizes all power. That is the Kremlin scenario for Bulgaria. And that will be the end of democracy in this country.

There are party tribes that have entrenched themselves and do not recognise the democratic vote of the citizens. Because there is a clear parliamentary tradition that has been violated, namely that the first political party should elect the Speaker. This is a sign of a deep Africanisation of Bulgarian politics, an extremely low political culture and an even lower coalition culture.

Whether it will be possible to form a government that will work for several months or years remains to be seen. What is undeniable is that such a government is needed and expected by citizens for whom elections have become part of everyday life. But the vote on 27 October this year left too many doubts about its fairness and transparency for the issue to be brushed aside lightly.

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"Not only is the political crisis not being addressed, but it is deepening and delegitimising the basis of a democratic society, which is parliamentary elections. Given that we have so many suspicions that the logic of the political space has been brutally violated, the most logical thing to do as a society is to demand that the elections be annulled. I see no chance of a long-term solution to the political crisis through the formation of a government," said sociologist Zhivko Georgiev.

Text by Yoan Kolev /Interviews by Georgi Nalbantov and Teodora Simova from BNR-Horizont, Danail Konov from BNR-Radio Sofia, Antoaneta Petrichanska from BNR-Plovdiv/

Photos: Reuters, BGNES

English version: E. Radkova

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