Bulgaria Rightists Refuse Support for Conservative RZS Leader

The leader of the Union of Democratic Forces, Martin Dimitrov, says they will not support the conservative RZS in their request for changes in the Parliamentary code. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Bulgaria's rightist Blue Coalition declared they would not support changes in the Parliamentary code, requested by the conservative leader, Yane Yanev.

Yanev, from the Order, Law and Justice (RZS) party wants to reduce the required minimum of Members of the Parliament from one party to form a parliamentary group from 10 to 8.

The declaration was made by both the Blue Coalition co-Chair and leader of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), Martin Dimitrov, and the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Ekaterina Mihailova, from Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) – the other party in the Blue Coalition.

Dimitrov says the Parliament must stay away from changes that benefit certain groups while Mihailova stated there was no need to change the code.

The changes were requested by RZS after their MP, Mario Tagarinski, left the RZS group Friday.

This move led to the group falling apart since it now has 9 members instead of the required minimum of 10. According to the new General Assembly rules, the 9 RZS MPs can not join another group and must function as independent MPs.

On Saturday Yanev raised alarm that Tagarinski's whereabouts were unknown and that he might be a victim of a political kidnap. Later that day Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov announced Tagarinski had called him and was doing fine.

On Monday Tagarinski said he left the party on his own will.

RZS believe the entire issue is a political racket on the part of the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party and is related to their proposal to reduce the budget of the presidential institution. Also on Monday, they requested from Borisov that the party's parliamentary group is restored by 9 am Wednesday.

Borisov replied that ultimatums don't work for him and he does not interfere with other parties' affairs.

The PM further reminded RZS did not support GERB during the budget vote.

“I am in charge of the GERB MPs and I see that they do not run away. People's expectation for me are sometimes too high... What should I do? Bring back every MP from every parliamentary group if they decide to run away?” Borisov is quoted as saying.

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