President Radev handed over the first government-forming mandate to Mariya Gabriel of GERB-UDF

President Rumen Radev handed over the first mandate for forming a government to Mariya Gabriel at 12.00 on March 18.

The complicated political situation in the country became even more tangled after last night the GERB-UDF negotiating team, headed by Mariya Gabriel, issued a briefing.

It became clear that GERB-UDF insisted on a level playing field in the government and that if they could not reach an agreement by 12.00, Gabriel would return an empty folder to the President.

Mariya Gabriel announced that "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" had even rejected their proposal to keep the current composition of the government with only one change - the rotation of the prime minister and deputy prime minister.

This was followed by an immediate reaction from the WCC-DB, who argued that with the unprecedented political crisis, efforts to reach an agreement should not stop for the short time that remains.

WCC-DB insisted that GERD-UDF sit at the negotiating table and use the 7-day period after receiving the government-forming mandate to reach a consensus.

WCC-DB co-chairman, Kiril Petkov, called for the continuation of the governance and said that taking ministerial posts was not important for them, but the reforms in the judiciary, security services and regulators.

Assen Vassilev of WCC-DB said they agree with the rotation of prime minister and deputy prime minister, but an agreement must be signed.

For his part, Atanas Atanasov called on Boyko Borissov to intervene and concluded that the morning would be wiser than the evening.

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Late lat night (March 17), at an emergency briefing of the GERB-UDF negotiating team, headed by Mariya Gabriel, they said that "if tomorrow by 12:00 they do not have clarity on the proposals they have made, she will return an empty folder to the President."

"If by noon (on Monday, March 18) “We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria” are willing to share power and not keep it solely for themselves, then we can talk, Denitsa Sacheva said at the briefing.

"If not, then we return the mandate and there will be no government with the second mandate, said Sacheva, adding that this would mean new parliamentary elections.

In the words of Mariya Gabriel, "from the very beginning of the negotiations, we engaged in good faith. We did not talk through the media".

The dispute is about GERB being placed on an equal footing in the government, being the first political force with the most MPs

"After the first round of negotiations it became clear that we had common points but we also haves differences," Mariya Gabriel said.

"For us, the argument is about GERB being placed on an equal footing in the government, being the first political force with the largest number of MPs,” she noted.

"We have no disputes about regulators, judicial reform. We have fundamental differences."

"We proposed to vote on the same composition of the government (with only a rotation between the prime minister and the deputy prime minister), to have the possibility to replace ministers and to continue working on the agreement, but this was categorically rejected," Mariya Gabriel added.

"We have been negotiating for 8 days now. We want to have a level playing field in government. GERB-UDF cannot be a rubber stamp for any reforms," Denitsa Sacheva said.

WCC-DB immediately responded to the briefing with a briefing and said that they hoped "the agreement will still be signed".

WCC-DB urged GERB-UDF negotiations to continue in order not to plunge the country into crisis.

DB co-leader, Hristo Ivanov:

"We had a declaration with which we started working together - regulators, judicial reform, security sector reform and the fight against corruption. We think that at this stage it is good to sign a document to settle these commitments so that people know that there will be reforms."

"When we started the negotiations, we started to write from scratch from both documents and together we made one common document together with GERB-UDF."

"I don't understand why the signing of this agreement is being questioned because this is a way out of the crisis."

Hristo Ivanov pointed out that this was the right formula for solving the problems in the country. He said that everything went very well with the negotiations."I don't understand why its signing should be questioned."

He pointed out that the PP-DB was also ready to negotiate with the GERB-SDF to sign the joint document.

WCC co leader, Kiril Petkov:

"For us the most important are not the ministers, but the reforms in the judiciary, regulators and the fight against corruption. These three things are in this agreement. Nothing is lost. Nothing suggests that anything should be 'blown up' now."

"I call on Mariya Gabriel and Boyko Borissov to finish the agreement. Let us not plunge the country into crisis. Both the people and the parties do not want it. We can continue the reforms".

WCC co-leader and outgoing Finance Minister, Assen Vassilev:

"The main problem of having a crisis in the negotiation process is the postponement of the signing of the agreement. There is no dispute on the composition of the Council of Ministers. There is a dispute when to sign the agreement. This could be a fake but also a real crisis."

He pointed out that he remains "moderately optimistic".

WCC-DB co-leader Atanas Atanassov:

"I want to call on GERB leader Boyko Borissov to intervene in this situation. I do not understand what is the reason for the negotiations to stall (tonight)".

He suggested to Gabriel to "not rush to return the empty folder tomorrow" (referring to the exploratory mandate to form a government), and for the talks to continue on Monday morning.

Ougoing PM, Nikolay Denkov:

"On Friday, the understanding stopped and GERB-UDF said 'we are ready to remain with the same composition of Council of Ministers, but now we cannot sign the agreement, and we will sign it sometime."

There will be negotiations, but when - new clashes between GERB-UDF and WCC-DB