Bulgaria's GERB Party to Keep Boycotting Sittings of Parliament

Boyko Borisov, former Bulgarian Prime Minister and leader of center-right party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria), photo by BGNES

The MPs of center-right party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) will show up in Parliament but will boycott sittings whenever the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party, and nationalist party Ataka fail to secure a quorum, according to GERB leader Boyko Borisov.

Through its newly adopted practice of appearing in Parliament but refusing to register for voting, GERB managed to cancel a number of parliament sittings, including ones scheduled to feature debates on a no-confidence motion against the government initiated by the party.

Speaking Sunday at a meeting with the leaders of municipal units of GERB in Sofia, he declared that the party would resort to a parliamentary practice which was in line with the principles of democracy.

Borisov, as cited by the BGNES news agency, emphasized that GERB MPs would attend parliament sittings in order to prevent the adoption of flawed laws such as the one intended to lift the full smoking ban in enclosed public places.

"What kind of expert is Oresharski? Is there anything he has done as an expert so far? When we came to power in 2009, he left us a huge loan which we had to pay. As regards his term in office as Minister, just before he left, he allowed an increase in pensions, fully knowing that there was no money for that measure," Borisov stated.

He commented that the socialist-led coalition government and Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski had no plan and did not know what they were doing, taking into account that they moved to raise new debt of up to BGN 1 B in the very beginning of their term in office.

"Show me a financial expert, or any expert at all, who will take a loan which will automatically increase interest rates in the country and drag down its credit rating? Oresharski is no expert. He has done nothing as an expert in his life so far," the leader of GERB and former Prime Minister commented, reiterating that socialist leader Sergey Stanishev would not be required to do any belt-tightening as a result of the measure, unlike the Bulgarian people.

"Apart from that, through a particularly non-expert decision, they froze the pension reform by 2014. Why, what will change by then? Nothing.Why stop it then," he suggested.

"This government is calamitous and it must go as soon as possible. The two revenue agencies are not functioning. The revenue collection is below the collection rate we achieved. Investors see what is happening and are fleeing Bulgaria," he stated.

Borisov claimed said that BSP had no right to speak of reforms because they were failing to reform their own party.

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