President Rumen Radev is expected to soon hand over the third and final government mandate, meaning that if parties will again fail to form a coalition, Bulgarians will be called back to the polls for the fifth time in five years.
At the end of last year, the party of the long-time former prime minister Boyko Borissov failed to form a government after unsuccessfully proposing the non-party candidate Professor Nikolay Gabrovski, a neurosurgeon, for prime minister.
On Friday, Professor Nikolay Denkov, who was nominated for prime minister by We continue the change, also failed to gain support in parliament after his four national priorities were rejected. Denkov’s party will return the mandate to form a government without even being voted on by the deputies.
All eyes are now on Radev, who must choose the political force to make the final and third attempt.
According to many, a third term to form a government has the best chance of success, but hopes are not high. If this attempt fails, the EU’s poorest country will hold its fifth general election in the last five years in early April.
This is the worst political crisis in the country since the fall of the totalitarian communist regime at the end of 1989. At the same time, while pro-Russian sentiments remain high in the country (nearly 40%), Bulgaria remains a key ally on the Eastern flank in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine.
On Sunday, GERB leader Boyko Borissov called on the leader of the small pro-European coalition Democratic Bulgaria, Hristo Ivanov, to form a government and invite the parliamentary parties to sign a new social contract for the governance of the country. Borissov said that the ministers in the possible new government must undertake that they will not commit any illegal actions or get involved in corruption.
Ivanov is among parliament’s most consensus-minded politicians and has called for agreement on the main priorities for the country – judicial reform, entry into Schengen and the Eurozone.
“I also agree with Hristo Ivanov that it is important to have a government. I know Ivanov well. Let him announce the composition of the government, invite us and say under what conditions everything can happen. Let a document be signed. The right word, Hristo; this document is a new social contract”, said the leader of GERB and expressed his readiness to support the judicial reform requested by Democratic Bulgaria.
We Continue the Change has not yet decided on the third attempt to form a government.
Radev, for his part, does not have to go with the proposed candidates and can give another political leader the mandate to form a new government.
“Unless a miracle happens, there will be elections at the beginning of April. If a miracle happens – we see a programme that moves Bulgaria forward, breaks corruption, and we see a composition that can fulfil this – we will support it, but I am slightly sceptical that it will happen. If it happens, I am sceptical that the other parties will support it,” said Asen Vassilev, the co-chairman of We continue the change.
(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)
Source: euractiv.com
