WCC-DB call on President Radev to withdraw his decree

We are witnessing an unprecedented replacement in Bulgarian constitutional and political history, "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" said at a press conference on March 19 .The political alliance called on President Radev to withdraw his decree for voting on Mariya Gabriel's proposed cabinet.

President Rumen Radev issued a decree proposing to Parliement to elect GERB-UDF PM designate

Outgoing Prime Minister, Nikolai Denkov, said that the proposed line-up earlier today was not coordinated with the WCC-DB negotiating team and that most of the proposed people, including him, had not agreed to be ministers.

"I do not want to be nominated to the composition of this cabinet. There is also no agreement on the text of the agreement. Yes, it was discussed, but controversial texts remained. That is why the only signature you will see under it is Mariya Gabriel's, there are no signatures from WCCP-DB. There is no decision of our collective bodies that we could include such a composition of the Council of Ministers or sign such an agreement."

All these months I have had a basic trust in Mariya Gabriel, but today it was irrevocably lost, said the co-chair of WCC, Kiril Petkov.

"She succumbed to Mr Borissov's pressure. I guess also to the pressure of Mr Peevski. She showed today that she does not have the qualities to be prime minister. To be prime minister you have to have basic integrity, you have to have courage, leadership skills and not bend over. I feel sorry for her. I am ashamed of Mr Borissov. Because all these days (of negotiations) he has not appeared for a moment. He used four women, hiding behind them, because he didn't have the guts to sit at the table and say he can't accept this cabinet."

About Borissov (the leader of power sharing partner GERB-UDF), he added with a saying that "a wolf can change his coat but not his character".

"Today Mr Borissov chose perhaps his fears, dependencies or friendship with Peevski over Bulgaria."

Atanas Atanasov of DB made two appeals. The first - to the President - asking him to withdraw the decree proposing the Parliament to vote for a cabinet.

"Mr. President, half of the people named as candidates for ministers do not agree with this. There is a risk that you will violate the Constitution, you should withdraw your decree"

His second appeal was to the Speaker of Parliament, Rosen Zhelyazkov (who has been nominated for a minister in the new cabinet) - if the decree is not withdrawn, the item should not be included on the Parliament's agenda.

To the Speaker of the National Assembly - I am the man who is the author of the slogan 'Let's restore the parliamentary republic. The supreme body of state power is the Parliament, so Mr Speaker, do not include in the agenda of the National Assembly an item on the election of the cabinet because this is a scandal and a violation of the Constitution."

According to Assen Vassilev, co-leader of WCC, what is happening now are "mean tricks".

"We are witnessing one of the biggest forgeries in contemporary Bulgarian politics. Such a thing has never happened. To be listed as a minister in a cabinet without my consent, without having seen the other cabinet members. This is an act of either insolence or joylessness or outrageousness that no Prime Minister of this country can afford. Mrs Gabriel spoke extremely beautifully to the President. We have seen a monologue. Instead of the beautiful words from Europe that I have just read, we have seen mean tricks.

Vassilev described Mariya Gabriel as "the newest and most beautiful face of the mafia in Bulgaria".

Finally, Mr Peevski and Mr Borissov blew everything up, Hristo Ivanov said.

"Because Mr. Peevski is not happy that he is not entitled to a "first marriage night" to form a new judiciary. The cost, unfortunately, is huge," Ivanov said.