GERB-UDF, We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria agreed on a rotating PM with the second mandate - Denkov and Gabriel will change every 9 months

An hour before the GERB-UDF returned the exploratory government-forming mandate to the President on May 22, the candidates for prime minister of GERB-UDF, Mariya Gabriel, and of "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB), Nikolay Denkov, gave a briefing in the National Assembly, where it became clear that the first mandate will not be executed because the two political forces have reached an agreement for a cabinet with a second mandate with a prime minister on a rotating basis.

The WCC-DB will propose a government that can implement constitutional reform with broad parliamentary and public support, meet all requirements related to the country's full EU membership, including Schengen and the eurozone, and implement comprehensive judicial reform. As a guarantee that this government will work for at least 18 months with the support of the first political force in Parliament, Denkov said.

In the first nine months, the proposal is that Nikolay Denkov will be prime minister and Mariya Gabriel will be deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs. For the next 9 months - Mariya Gabriel will be prime minister and Denkov will take over as deputy prime minister. Changes in the initial line-up and structure of the Council of Ministers will be made only with the consent of both parties.

It is clear that the situation is extremely difficult, after 5 consecutive elections and in the current National Assembly we have difficulties to form a regular cabinet, which creates the danger of going to the sixth consecutive elections without a clear result. It is clear that we have to look for another solution", Denkov said.

"It is difficult to realise the first mandate with the support of 121 MPs, we proposed to GERB-UDF to pivot on the legislative and governance programme and the composition, which can then be refined. We are looking for parliamentary support from GERB-UDF we have a Deputy Prime Minister who is proposed to join and then a Prime Minister on a rotational basis.

“The place of Mariya Gabriel in such a cabinet is quite clear, she is the person who can help implement the priorities in our governance programme," he said.

The government with the second mandate is committed to implement a constitutional reform for changes in the structure of the Prosecutor's office and the Supreme Judicial Council, to submit a regular budget on time with a deficit of up to 3% while preserving social payments and without tax increases, to implement the legislative programme and to meet the priorities for accession to Schengen and the euro area, to change the Electoral Code so as to return machine voting and to change the composition of the Central Election Commission so as to ensure the fairness of the vote of the Bulgarian citizens, to develop a mechanism for electing the composition of regulators with expired term of office, to table legislative changes to exempt the leadership of the Bulgarian security services from foreign influence.

"If for any reason the implementation of the governance and legislative programme goes awry, I will resign," Denkov assured, concluding, "In the coming months, Mariya Gabriel and I should be partners in the full political sense of the word."

Mariya Gabriel, for her part, first thanked the parties she had talks with. "It did not work out with the BSP - obviously we have more differences than convergence. Leading the negotiations, I think it was equally clear that a stable government between the first two political forces has the possibility to stand on a solid and principled basis," she said.

She thanked the leaders of GERB-UDF and WCC-DB, who over the past 48 hours "with reason and not emotion" had expected to receive support for today's document.

"Its text shows how many concessions everyone has made for the sake of one thing - Bulgaria having a regular government," she said.

She and Denkov have managed to draft the first joint document on which the two coalitions stand. The declaration should get the support of the parliamentary groups and the next days should convince them that this is the right approach.