GERB Ready to Accept RB’s Radan Kanev as Prime Minister

Bulgaria’s biggest party GERB could accept a cabinet led not by Boyko Borisov, but by Radan Kanev, one of the leaders at right-wing Reformist Bloc.

Tomislav Donchev, a key official of the center-right party, made the remark at a before GERB and the Reformists kicked off government talks on Sunday.

The meeting was reportedly positive and constructive against the background of Borisov's earlier threats to hand back the government mandate upon receiving it, just two days after the two entities had agreed to form the cabibnet.

GERB and the RB said afterwards that the government program was ready and would be adopted Monday morning and handed to the Patriotic Front (PF) and Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) for approval.

Nationalist PF and left-wing ABV are two entities which GERB believes could both support the GERB-RB minority coalition set to form the next cabinet without participating.

However, no final agreement seems to have been reached on how the two parties could allocate the ministerial seats.

Right-wingers insist the program should first be completed and adopted before any "personal appointments" are made, while conservative GERB says agreement on ministers' names and portfolios should be reached beforehand.

RB has now a deadline until Monday to deliver a list outlining their contribution to the Council of Ministers with ministries and names, Donchev explained.

"If there is disagreement related to positions in the cabinet... we are ready for other options, including to support a cabinet with Radan Kanev as Prime Minister, for instance," Donchev told reporters.

Other GERB members later asserted Donchev had in mind a government formed with the conservatives' mandate.

Dochev, also a MEP, dismissed subsequent comments that his suggestion was "a joke".

Kanev, the leader of one of RB's biggest parties (DSB), did not attend himself the consultations, with Petar Moskov representing the party.

Leaders of the three other main entities, Meglena Kuneva (DBG) and Bozhidar Lukarski (SDS) and Korman Ismailov (NPSD) were present at the meeting.

Kuneva said the program negotiators had prepared contains twenty priorities and is to be unveiled on Monday.

DSB's leader did not respond to Donchev's remarks, but on Sunday evening posted a song with an ambiguous meaning on his profile.

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