ABV Yet to Decide on Having Minister in Bulgaria's Government

Left-wing Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) has not yet decided whether to participate in the next Bulgarian cabinet, ABV parliament group's Chairman Ivaylo Kalfin revealed Tuesday.

Kalfin said the party had already received a draft document outlining the priorities of conservative GERB and right-wing Reformist Bloc (RB), the two entities that are to form a minority coalition.

GERB and the RB fall short of a majority in Parliament and will have to be supported by the nationalist coalition called Patriotic Front (PF), but GERB has explicitly indicated it would like to rely on ABV.

The left-wing ABV was initially a movement of President (2002-2012) Georgi Parvanov that broke away from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) in January to run independently in the EU elections. Its breakthrough was however a few months later, when it made it into Bulgaria's Parliament narrowly passing the threshold and gaining 11 MEP seats.

Kalfin also told reporters on Tuesday that ABV had a set of "requirements" in a number of fields that have to be included in the program if GERB and the RB would like to see ABV as a partner in government.

"If this is a right-wing government with the priorities of GERB and the RB, I repeat and will certainly always repeat there's no room for us there," Kalfin made clear.

He refused to comment on reports that emerged Tuesday suggesting he might be offered a ministerial seat, saying he "feels good in Parliament".

ABV's leadership is to discuss the two prospective government parties' document later this week in order to take a final stand.

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