Bulgarian MPs to Debate No Confidence Vote, New Minister

Stefan Konstantinov (middle) will be the third Health Minister of Bulgaria in the past six months. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Parliament is set to debate Wednesday the first ever no confidence vote of the Borisov Cabinet and the appointment of a new health minister.

The no confidence motion was submitted last week by 76 MPs from the opposition Socialist Party and the ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) over the "government's failure in health care."

The motives of the opposition are "the financial destabilization of health care, broken constitutional rights of the Bulgarian citizens, absence of a long-term health strategy, chaos in health legislation, inconsistence of governmental decisions, lack of efficient control, political appointments, and conflict of interests."

The no confidence motion has no chance of being passed as the ruling party GERB has 117 MPs out of 240, and enjoys the stanch support of the nationalist party Ataka with its 21 MPs. The rightist Blue Coalition (14 MPs) said it won't back the motion because those who initiated it "have no moral right to do so" based on their performance in power in the previous two governments.

Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov said he had no concerns about the no confidence vote, and that the health care sector has always been the topic of the first no confidence vote of every Bulgarian government in the past years.

Right after the debate on the no confidence vote on health care, the MPs are to vote on the ruling party GEBR's nominee for Health Minister, Stefan Konstantinov, who was selected to take over from Anna-Maria Borisova, the second health minister to resign in the past six months.

The appointment will be supported only by GERB and Ataka, while the rightist Blue Coalition said it will abstain.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!