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The political roulette for Bulgaria’s new government under way

Photo: BGNES

Only after one day, on Monday, the GERB party which won the most votes in the elections is to start talks on forming a new government with the other seven formations in the future Parliament. Negotiations are to be held in two phases of seven days, with a very complex configuration of forces. The new Parliament will have twice as many political forces than in the previous one. Rightist GERB party will have in it five seats more than the total number of seats of the Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. Even before the talks GERB said it would not accept support from the MRF for its government. GERB believes that a broad coalition with the Socialists is not possible, like the existing European coalitions between right and left forces, as in the case of Bulgaria this time such a coalition government would be unstable because of the twice lower elections results of the Left.

The Socialists themselves are divided on whether to support the government of GERB and GERB believes that support without participation in the government would not be real support. GERB can count on real support by the five smaller parliamentary parties, but there the picture is unclear. There is a left formation – Alternative for Bulgarian Revival party, two nationalist – the Patriotic Front and Ataka, one that defines itself as centrist – the new party Bulgaria without Censorship, and one rightist formation – the Reformist bloc coalition. As a right formation the Reformist Bloc would support a cabinet composed of GERB, but one of its component forces - the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party insists that the Prime Minister's office should not be taken by the leader of GERB, Boyko Borissov. Borissov in his turn insists on being the prime minister. And so on and so forth…

On the eve of the upcoming talks, Borissov summarizes that the negotiating team of his party will be geared towards a coalition government composed of shared responsibility without BSP and MRF, and with a clearly signed agreement. Under the expression “a cabinet of the shared responsibility” Borissov means a government in which the coalition partners have their own ministers.

The task of drawing up the new cabinet is so complex that many people wonder if there is a solution at all. However, if a solution is not reached, the country would fall into an even more acute political crisis coupled with an economic crisis in winter. No matter how the prospective cabinet might be defined now, it is only possible as a cabinet of compromise.




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