Mariya Gabriel withdraws her candidacy for Prime Minister

Tomorrow, I will submit a letter withdrawing my candidacy for Prime Minister. GERB will not participate in negotiations for a second mandate, the outgoing Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mariya Gabriel ,said at a briefing at the GERB headquarters on March 24.

"The talks continued in recent days. Thank you for your patience, arguments and discussions", Mariya Gabriel said at the start of the briefing.

She especially thanked outgoing PM, Acad. Nikolai. Denkov, with whom "we did not cross any boundaries that would have made a conversation between us impossible."

"In the recent 9 months, we have seen that important reforms are happening with GERB. For the sake of Bulgaria having a government, there were talks in the last three days. GERB made concessions again. At this point, instead of this being appreciated, a new demand came. We say ‘no’ to the never-ending new conditions. This fills the GERB group with intolerance. I would like to express my regret at the situation that has been created, in which it is clear that many concessions have been made, but we have a solid basis. Unfortunately, we are going to have to return to them after elections. Thirdly, I will remain as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs to do my job until the last day of this Government. Fourthly, in the option of elections - the campaign will depend on us - whether it will be used to pit people against each other, whether it will play on people's fears, whether opinions will be manipulated, or whether we will take the time to clearly set out what we want for the country and go into negotiation after talks with respect for the other and with a clear commitment to the way things are going to be done," said Mariya Gabriel.

She added that:

"The moment we showed willingness that we can make a concession for the Ministry of Defence and Energy, a change was also requested at the Ministry of the Interior."

"We state clearly that GERB will not participate in negotiations for the second mandate," she stressed. (referring to when the President hands over the mandate to seek to form a government with the second largest parliamentary group - "We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria)

Asked about the third mandate, Gabriel said: “The reply is ‘No’.

"The position of Ms Gabriel is 100% the position of the executive committee of GERB and the entire parliamentary group. We stated very clearly that we do not want to participate in such games anymore, we do not want to contribute more to the political decay in Bulgaria. We do not want any more abuse of the patience and the resolve of the Bulgarian citizens to see their problems solved, and do not want to continue with games and disputes. Mrs Gabriel had an extremely dignified European behaviour and gave the best of herself. The successes of this government are due to a large degree to her work, to her efforts, to everything that she has done, she has defended the parliamentary group with dignity, she has done everything she can to ensure that we have a government, and we too, in good faith, and we will no longer allow ourselves to be used, to be pressured, to have conditions and rules constantly changed. We are saying clearly today that this is over. After the elections we will restart, we will talk, we will see, we want the Bulgarian citizens to decide who they trust to govern and to make these reforms, which are constantly being talked about," said Denitsa Sacheva - GERB-UDF parliamentary group.

"With joint efforts we managed to work out a good agreement that will serve as a basis for any future negotiations after the elections. However, the insulting epithets directed at us were not in vain. They showed very clearly that we have not managed to go beyond the phrase 'non-coalition, non-partners and enemies'. They also reflect very clearly what in fact is the opinion the team negotiating with us for us. And that with this distrust that was demonstrated we cannot win the trust of either the Bulgarian citizens or our foreign partners," said Raya Nazarian, deputy chairman of the GERB-UDF group.

Images by BTA

"As regards what blew up the negotiations - what actually led to this ending is in fact the “We Continue the change-Democratic Bulgaria’s struggle for power and for posts. I also want to point out that the GERB-UDF group stands firmly behind Mariya Gabriel. We thank her for all the efforts she has made, she was an outstanding Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, we stand firmly behind her and the GERB-UDF group believes that this political racketeering exercised against our party, our members, supporters, parliamentary group is high time to be stopped," said Temenuzhka Petkova of GERB.

Negotiations for a cabinet with a rotation of Prime Ministers began before the mandate for forming a government was handed over to the largest parliamentary group GERB-UDF. The negotiating team of GERB-UDF, outgoing Prime Minister, Nikolai Denkov, and WCC-DB Chairman, Kiril Petkov, went together to receive the mandate at the President’s office.

The first mandate to form a government: Will there be a vote on a new cabinet?

After being given an adjournment for a joint decision on the composition of the cabinet, on the second day after the mandate was handed, GERB-UDF’s Prime Minister designate, Mariya Gabriel, went to President Rumen Radev with a ready composition of the cabinet. She went only with her party mates. The power sharing partners from “We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria”, at a special press conference later on that day, distanced themselves from the proposed cabinet line-up and said that the proposed ministers from their party had not agreed to be ministers.

WCC-DB to GERB-UDF: The next move is yours

GERB-UDF to WCC-DB: The next move is yours too!

Insulting qualifications and accusations created further tension between the representatives of the non-coalition partners. GERB-UDF called for apologies, while WCC-DB said it intended to continue negotiations when invited.

Outging PM Nikolai Denkov: Mariya Gabriel made a big political mistake