Bulgarian Socialists Ready for New Talks with GERB, Mikov Says  

The Socialists will take part on a second round of consultations over forming a government coalition if GERB extended an invitation for meaningful political negotiations, Socialist leader Mihail Mikov said on Tuesday.

He, however, stopped short of indicating whether the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) is ready to make concessions and render support to GERB.

“As far as principles are concerned, a political party can make concessions up to a certain point, beyond which a concession already is equivalent to a breach of trust of the people who support that party,” Mikov told BNR radio station.

Mikov said the Socialists will not backtrack on their demand to replace the current 10% flat income tax rate supported by GERB by progressive taxation and introduce family-based taxation.

The BSP will also stick to its demands for providing state incentives for the construction of major energy projects such as Belene nuclear power plant and South Stream gas pipeline, Mikov said.

Centre-right GERB party, which won most votes in early parliamentary elections on October 5 but remained short of outright majority, said on Monday will hold a second round of consultations with four of the seven other parties represented in the chamber this week, including the BSP. GERB has 84 of the 240 seats in the new Parliament, while the Socialists are the second-biggest group with 39 seats.  

In the first round of talks held last week the Socialists vowed to remain in opposition to GERB, citing deep differences over key economic and political issues.

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