No Confidence Vote Targets Bulgaria PM Personally - Opposition

Socialist leader and former Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev (R) is pictured here with his successor Boyko Borisov (L). Photo by BGNES

The upcoming no confidence vote against Bulgaria's center-right government is aimed at Prime Minister Boyko Borisov personally, an opposition leader has announced.

"You do not care either for the constitution or the laws, you behave as if you own the state. Do not be surprised if every no confidence vote submitted by the opposition is a vote against the prime minister," Socialist leader Sergei Stanishev said from the parliamentary rostrum on Friday.

Bulgaria's Socialist Party and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms are about to table in parliament a no confidence motion because of what has been described as the cabinet's failure to tame the crisis.

Should the government survive the vote, the two parties will table a new no confidence motion right before the summer recess in a bid to trigger snap polls in the autumn.

Stanishev, a former prime minister, recently said he is ready to head a new government again although during his term he was known as an easily controllable politician with real power lying not in his office.

Two years after taking office as Bulgaria's prime minister, Boyko Borisov has seen his approval ratings dip sharply, according to a new poll.

Borisov's personal approval rate slumps for the first time to 35% and just as many are the people opposing him, says the survey, which was conducted by Alfa Research polling agency in the period May-June 2011 among 1020 respondents.

While demonstrating determination to crush crime and corruption, Borisov has been sending mixed signals on a list of tough economic and political issues, including taxes, the retirement age, health contributions and whether to scrap or build energy projects with Russia.

Borisov's supporters say the government of the center-right GERB party should stay in power because it has no political alternative - the other major parties have all been gravely discredited during their terms in office and are the ones to blame for leaving the country in tatters and for making it the poorest in Europe.

Should the current government collapse, all hell may break loose with either dozens of small parties fighting for power or an interim government, appointed by the Socialist President Georgi Parvanov, which will definitely serve Russia's interests, they say.

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