Rossen Zhelyazkov of GERB-UDF to be elected as Speaker of 49th Parliament, rotation will be considered in three months

Rossen Zhelyazkov of GERB-UDF to be elected as Speaker of the 49th National Assembly. If the Parliament works for more than 3 months, it is possible that there will be a rotation based on a gentlemen's agreement between GERB-UDF and We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria. This was agreed by the two largest parliamentary political groups on April 18 after the series of meetings on the legislative programme of the 49th Parliament.

While Rosen Zhelyazkov is the Speaker of the National Assembly, the chairman of the legal committee will be from the WCC-DB group. He will be nominated after discussion of the coalition leadership.

If it comes to a rotation, the chairman of the legal committee will also be replaced.

The two largest political forces represented in Parliament have prepared a joint list of bills which they will propose to the other political forces. They concern the reforms under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, Bulgaria's accession to the euro zone and Schengen, the bills on changes to the Criminal Procedure Code, the anti-corruption commision and protection from domestic violence.

Nikolay Denkov of WCC-DB said that plans are to have an elected National Assembly Speaker by Wednesday.

"Tomorrow, we expect to have an elected Speaker of the National Assembly so that it can start regular work. The list of draft laws will be proposed as the programme of this session of the Parliament and if it works successfully, in three months there will be a possibility to rotate the Speaker of the National Assembly so that together with the chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs they work in sync and the remaining draft laws be passed," said Nikolay Denkov of WCC-DB.

The legislative programme will also be presented to the other political forces represented in the Parliament in search of support, as well as a constitutional majority for judicial reform.

Negotiations for a government have not been held within the working group.

Nikolay Denkov, WCC-DB: "Our answer has always been clear and categorical - at this table we are discussing only our legislative programme, we are not discussing the formation of a government. We have no such mandate given to us by our national bodies and the formation of a government is a matter of talks between party leaders, not a working group on legislation."

Desislava Atanasova, GERB-UDF: "Making it clear that these efforts are part of a larger process and a longer path, but also taking into account that colleagues have decisions of their national bodies regarding a future government, we categorically state that now our country is the most important and we appeal for the constructive tone and dialogue to continue so that the main mission of each Parliament is fulfilled - to elect a working regular government."