The autumn session of the 44th National Assembly has started turbulently. Tension was high both in front of the Parliament building, where a clash broke out an hour earlier between protesters against the ruling party and gendarmerie forces, as well as in the plenary hall.

The head of state Rumen Radev addressed the MPs. His appearance was greeted with the chanting of "Resignation" and the departure of the parliamentary groups of the ruling GERB party and the opposition party "Volya".

"I am not entirely pleased to be in the National Assembly in this situation," the head of state said, adding that leaving the hall was "indicative of the lack of dialogue and showed why people are in the streets today."

"We have no other way out of the blockade of the state than the peaceful one, no other than the normal political act of resignation in case of loss of confidence." "I expect the parliament would not take on the role of service staff to the prime minister anymore. It was not the lack of a new constitution that brought people to the streets, but the lack of morale in governing, undermining the foundations of statehood, as well as corruption," the President said.

The first sitting of the MPs continued with the traditional political declarations of the parties represented in parliament. The current parliamentary session will be the last for the 44^th National Assembly of Bulgaria. Regular parliamentary elections are expected in March 2021. And here are the priorities in the work of the MPs until then:

"We are about to follow the procedure for convening a Grand National Assembly, which from its legitimate position would outline the path of development of Bulgaria," said chairwoman of the parliamentary group of the ruling GERB party Daniela Daritkova. Speaking about the protests in front of the Parliament building, she pointed out: "We do not want to make Bulgarians turn against Bulgarians." No one can appropriate exercising people's sovereignty, Daritkova said, sharply criticizing  President Rumen Radev, who supports the anti-government protest.

On behalf of the group of BSP for Bulgaria, Kornelia Ninova outlined three steps out of the political crisis - "machine voting, government resignation and fair elections." We would not take advantage of mandate given to form a cabinet in this parliament. According to us, this parliament has been delegitimized and has only one task left – introducing machine voting and dissolving itself, Ninova said. "We have reached to this point as a result of ten years of corrupt, incompetent, behind-the-scenes governing of Boyko Borissov. Now, in order to survive at any cost, he is proposing a change in the Constitution," the BSP leader added, saying that violence should not to be allowed to erupt during the protests.

MRF leader Mustafa Karadayi said the movement was calling for the resignation of the government and the president, as the war between the institutions had led to a political crisis. In order to save statehood, the MRF insists on the formation of an expert anti-crisis cabinet, which is to conduct anti-crisis measures and fair and free elections.

On behalf of the United Patriots, Boris Yachev said that they would take an active part in the debate on the draft of a new Constitution, with their ideas and concrete proposals. "A project that will be discussed by the future Grand National Assembly." Yachev pointed out that the main commitment of the MPs from the group will be to increase citizens’ incomes and the minimum pension to 150 euros from January 2021. "All these priorities are the price of United Patriots remaining in this government,” the MP said.

Compiled by: Ivo Ivanov

English: Alexander Markov