Future Bulgarian government looks for five votes

Former EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel is looking for five votes in parliament to become prime minister. She has the support of 116 deputies from GERB, DPS and ITN but has until next Wednesday to find the remaining votes before facing the problem of Ivan Geshev.

On 22 June 2022, the Bulgarian parliament ousted the government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, who came to power with the promise of anti-corruption reforms and maintaining a pro-European foreign policy. The main promise of the ruling coalition at the time was to make a judicial reform that would put Prosecutor General Geshev under public scrutiny.

Petkov had abandoned his comfortable career in business and his Canadian citizenship to enter Bulgarian politics. He quickly realised that politics in Sofia is not for the weak-hearted and that everything is political trade. After being abandoned by his coalition partner ITN, Petkov was left with the support of 116 MPs and sought ten days to “buy” five more MP votes from his opponents to save the government in the 240-member parliament.

His attempts were unsuccessful, and his government was overthrown. Geshev remained an untouchable figure who systematically opposed any attempts at reform.

Almost one year later, Gabriel made a strong bet and left her cosy and calm position in Brussels to accept the mandate to form a government in Sofia.

Gabriel’s task will not be easy. Bulgaria has been in a deepening political crisis for over two years, and in April, the citizens of the poorest country in the EU voted for the fifth time in early parliamentary elections. Gabriel is trying to form a government on behalf of the party of the former long-time Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borisov, who has failed to confront the multiple corruption scandals from his 11-year rule.

On Monday, Gabriel was on the verge of announcing the successful formation of a new quadruple coalition of her GERB party, the pro-Russian socialists BSP, the country’s Turkish minority party DPS and the populist ITN party.

But Geshev was waiting in the wings to usurp the process.

Geshev became the head of the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office in 2019, but so far, the country has failed to show results in the fight against corruption at the highest levels of power. A significant part of Bulgarian society is convinced that Geshev is a product of the behind-the-scenes agreements and influence in the judiciary of Boyko Borisov and the former media oligarch Delyan Peevski (MP in the DPS, part of Renew Europe) sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act.

Western pressure for reforms forced Borissov to agree that reform of the prosecutor’s office was needed, and this began with the replacement of Geshev. It was the same with Delyan Peevski. He had to accept that if he wanted to rule with Borisov, he had to agree to Geshev’s dismissal.

At this sublime moment, an explosion took place near Sofia, aimed at the car of the chief prosecutor. Geshev claimed that this was an assassination attempt against him. However, the data from the incident show that it could have been staged.

At that moment, political influence was activated in Bulgarian justice. On Friday (May 12), some of the members of the Supreme Judicial Council, who have always supported Geshev, decided to demand his dismissal.

Thus, the Bulgarian chief prosecutor realised he was left without political support and spiralled out of control. On Monday (May 15), Geshev tore up his resignation in front of the television cameras and threatened to “clean up the political trash”. Hours later, the nerves of the leader of the socialists, Cornelia Ninova, could not stand it, and she announced that the BSP would not support the government of Gabriel.

On Friday morning, Sofia will anticipate the start of Geshev’s war against all the politicians who abandoned him.

(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)