Today, 25 January, the National Assembly said “No” to the no confidence motion in the government of PM Boyko Borissov, submitted by the left wing coalition “Bulgarian Socialist Party for Bulgaria” over the cabinet’s failed fight against corruption. As expected, the ruling political parties – GERB and its junior partner the United Patriots - voted against the motion, with the added votes “against” of the MPs from Volya party, plus one independent MP.

Two political forces voted “for” the motion of no confidence – the “Bulgarian Socialist Party for Bulgaria” coalition and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS. These formations have a total of 105 votes in parliament, but to bring down a government a simple majority is needed of 121 votes. As it turned out, they failed to turn any votes from other political forces around to their cause, what is more they even failed to fully mobilize their own resource, because there were only 103 votes “for” out of a possible 105.

At the end of the day, this means that in Bulgaria’s most modern history, we have not had a single vote of no confidence, only ones that have failed. The political forces openly admit that no confidence votes are a device they apply to make a point of given causes, and in this respect, the latest vote was nothing out of the ordinary. One news agency commented that the vote was nothing more than “an idling debate on whose corruption is bigger”, and another that “skimming over facts attesting to corruption practices in the enemy camp, the debate was turned into a contest of procedures”.

PM Borissov was not there for the discussions, he was not there for the vote either. During the debates, the prime minister was meeting with ambassadors, during the vote, he was paying a visit to the Principality of Lichtenstein. This is not the first time the prime minister has adopted such a posture, a demonstration he persists with to show that the opposition’s rebukes do not concern him. Overall, the situation after the vote paints a picture of the country’s political life in which the ruling party has no alternative. Adding up the votes of GERB party (95) with the votes of the United Patriots (27) the figure we get is 122, or one more than is needed for the absolute majority of 121. Such a majority may look brittle, but in most cases, as was the case now, other votes are added to it – the votes of the opposition Volya (11), and frequently, the votes of the DPS (25). Looked at things from this angle, the left-wing “Bulgarian Socialist Party for Bulgaria” coalition, is, in a sense, a rather “lonely” opposition.

The failure of the vote of no confidence in the government over corruption means that in the months to come, corruption will not be high up on the agenda of the National Assembly. Now, another issue is making its way to the top – whether to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul convention). The Bulgarian Socialist Party has proposed postponing its ratification and calling a referendum on the matter. The United Patriots coalition have stated there is no need to have a referendum on the convention, as society firmly opposes it anyway. On her part, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva offered a different angle, saying that, seeing as everyone is against domestic violence, it would be a good thing to have a referendum “for’ or “against” domestic violence, because that is what the Istanbul Convention is about. How things will develop from now on is difficult to say. Meanwhile, other and more important issues from the agenda of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU now seem to be taking precedence.

English version: Milena Daynova