Bulgaria Far-Right Drops Support for No-Confidence Vote

Bulgaria's far-right Ataka (Attack) party has decided to withdraw its support for the upcoming no-confidence vote against the ruling centrist-right GERB.

The no-confidence motion was submitted by Ataka and left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) over what the two parties perceive as GERB's failed energy policy. At the end of March, the GERB government decided to scrap the Belene Nuclear Power Plant, a project backed by the two aforementioned parties.

On Thursday, Ataka leader Volen Siderov declared that its MPs will not support the vote.

"Personally, I did not approve of BSP's game, but I agreed to the no-confidence petition, thinking that we would also initiate a petition for a referendum on the Belene NPP," Siderov said, as cited by the BGNES news agency.

"But they launched the petition on Belene as they own," he explained.

The no-confidence vote is doomed to fail, as it is not expected to be backed by more than 39 MPs. There are a total of 240 lawmakers in the Bulgarian Parliament.

The no-confidence vote will be discussed on April 23, when the MPs' controversial 10-day Easter break will be finally over.

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