GERB, Reformist Bloc Leave Door Open for New Gov't Talks

GERB and the Reformists did not agree on joint participation in the next government in their six-hour talks held Wednesday. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's largest party GERB and the Reformist Bloc have both taken a U-turn after initially saying they found it impossible to shake hands during the government consultations on Wednesday.

Comments from both sides come hours ahead of Thursday's negotiations between GERB and the nationalist coalition called Patriotic Front, which earned the five-biggest result in the October 5 snap vote, and which has been widely tipped as a likely coalition partner alongside the Reformists.

"I am utterly dissatisfied with the Reformist Bloc's preparation for [Wednesday]'s consultations. I understand that they were ill-prepared... on a lot of the issues," Borisov wrote in his Facebook page after the consultations with the right-wing alliance ended.

He said the Reformists had acted as "an unstable coalition partner" during the talks, choosing to be represented by more than three people in the consultations (contrary to previous arrangements under which each party could only send up to three members).

GERB's leader also described as "a provocation" their decision that former Energy Minister Traycho Traykov, dismissed by Borisov in February 2021, should be part of the delegation.

Borisov, however, made clear he was ready to sent a negotiating team one more time if the right-wing alliance "starts talking about real governance and puts and end to its post-electoral propaganda."

He also told the daily Pressa Bulgaria was heading for new early elections if the bloc did not change its stance.

The Reformist Bloc later underscored the "possibility" of the option that includes GERB, the bloc itself and the Patriotic Front in the next government.

On Thursday morning Petar Moskov from Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) told private national channel NOVA TV that the two political entities had virtually shown "a hundred-percent overlapping" of priorities, "with two or three profoundly specific details".

Moskov vowed that the coalition would fend off "reasonable" doubts of GERB about the RB's decision-making process.

The RB has no formal leader, with a few of its parties' chairs unofficially aspiring to take over the post.

Just hours earlier Radan Kanev said in an interview with bTV, the other leading private TV station, that GERB might have "merged with the [Movement for Rights and Freedoms] DPS and Delyan Peevski."

Kanev went further, accusing conservatives of being part of "the mafia".

At the same time criticism directed at GERB did not stop him saying new negotiations with GERB should not be ruled out.

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