Bulgaria's Political Crisis: WCC-DB Returned Second Mandate Unfulfilled - President To Convene The Parties In 10 Days

The President handed "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB) the second mandate to form a government.

WCC-DB in turn returned the unfulfilled second mandate to form a government. "I will return the mandate unfulfilled, since in the current National Assembly there is no longer support even for the management program that we adopted with GERB 9 months ago. There is also no support for the reforms that were the basis for the formation of this government. The GERB-DPS coalition actually wants elections and this is the result of their desire. The negotiations were conducted pro forma with the clear purpose for the country to be sent to elections," said the resigned Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov upon returning the mandate.

"We will not participate in negotiations for a third term. Our request is, if you can save 100 million leva for the Bulgarian citizens, so that two elections are not held, I ask you to make an effort. I know that this is not entirely in your powers, but it is not enough that the state is going into chaos because GERB forgot their promises, but at least if we can save the Bulgarian taxpayers BGN 100 million for holding two elections", said Kiril Petkov, co-chairman of WCC-DB.

Regarding indicators that there were no real negotiations, Denkov pointed out that:

• Mariya Gabriel from GERB presented to the president ministers whose consent to participate in the government she did not have;
• Gabriel has signed a unilateral agreement, the text of which was not agreed with "We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria;
• GERB negotiating team has repeatedly left the meetings with the coalition

President Rumen Radev made it clear that he does not consider it possible to hold early elections for the National Assembly and the European Parliament on the same day, probably on June 9. The head of state indicated that he will convene the political parties for consultations in ten days.

"I understand your concern, but it is too late for such a request. I have urged that no rash changes be made to the Constitution, especially regarding the Cabinet. You have made them, and now the issues become much greater. I will do my best in the process of choosing the Cabinet not to turn into a constitutional crisis. For your part, you did everything possible to have the powers of the presidential institution severely limited. I sympathize with you, but you did everything possible to prevent this institution from being able to control the processes, as it was until now," the president was categorical.

The narrow range of options for choosing a prime minister narrowed even more today with the resignation of the deputy ombudsman. Elena Cherneva-Markova was the only one of the possible nominations for acting prime minister who is not connected to any party and for whom it can be safely claimed that there is no incompatibility, Rumen Radev also commented.

According to the head of state, this increases the likelihood of a political cabinet. "How did Mrs. Elena Cherneva-Markova suddenly decide to resign? And when this was announced in the National Assembly, I was really surprised that you remained silent and did not react, and in my opinion there should have been questions. Why? How? What motives? How come suddenly just in the evening? Was there any pressure and why did you not initiate a hearing? And if these are normal things for you, then don't be surprised as a consequence that the probability of getting a political caretaker cabinet, which I don't know, but in any case, most likely will not be in your favor, increases sharply," the president addressed the leaders of WCC-DB.

For the second term in the presidency, the resigned Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov and the leaders of WCC-DB - Kiril Petkov, Atanas Atanasov and Hristo Ivanov arrived.

This morning gen. Atanas Atanasov confirmed that WCC-DB will return the folder empty today.

Yesterday, the coalition came up with a new proposal to GERB to jointly form a cabinet, headed by a mutually acceptable prime minister from GERB, without changing any of the previous ministers. The largest parliamentary force categorically rejected the offer and announced that it will not participate in attempts to form a government - neither with the second nor with the third term.

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