Bulgaria MPs Remain Divided ahead of Vote on Education Min Candidate

Bulgaria's Deputy PM Meglena Kuneva arriving in Parliament to meet MPs in relation to her Education Minister candidacy. Photo by BGNES

As lawmakers are set to vote on the candidacy of Meglena Kuneva to become Bulgaria's next Education Minister, it is not clear how much support she will gain.

Kuneva was endorsed by junior coalition partner Reformist Bloc after Prime Minister Boyko Borisov asked her successor, Todor Tanev, to resign amid controversy that a draft school curriculum sparked in society.

Within the Bloc, however, the DSB party which slid into opposition without leaving the union of parties says its lawmakers will vote "Abstained".

Other parties from the coalition government are also divided after Tuesday's hearing in Parliament.

While nearly all of the 80 lawmakers from the main ruling party, conservative GERB, are set to back her candidacy, left-wing ABV party (which has a Deputy PM in the government) says it will not vote for her but its MPs have not decided whether to take part in the vote or to abstain.

The Patriotic Front, a nationalist coalition backing the government, announced on Tuesday evening its lawmakers would vote either "No" or "Abstained" as Kuneva did not enjoy support from its voters.

Opposition BSP and DPS parties say they could not vote for her nomination, with socialists saying they she is not the person who can sole the problems in the education system.

Nationalist Ataka party's leader Volen Siderov described her as "an old cadre of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party [BKP]."

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