WCC-DB with a new proposal: GERB-UDF to nominate a Prime Minister under the second government-forming mandate

On March 26, “We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB) proposed that the second mandate for forming a government, which will be handed to them , be implemented as a national one and that GERB-UDF nominate a Prime Minister.

The political faction puts a condition for this to happen after the signing of a coalition agreement. In case of refusal by GERB-UDF, WCC-DB will consider its obligations observed and will return the mandate to the President unfulfilled, the proposal says.

The letter to GERB-UDF was read from the parliamentary rostrum by WCC-DB co-chair, Atanas Atanasov.

Co-chair of WCC-DB group, Kiril Petkov, pointed out that the proposal was not a request, but was motivated by a sense of duty.

"It would be a big mistake if you consider what you heard from General Atanasov as a request. In politics, as in life, the most important thing is to keep your word. The most important thing is every action to be motivated not by fear and greed, but by a sense of duty. There is something very simple on the table - there is an agreement - reform the justice system - for real. So that the people can witness that Bulgaria can have a justice system that responds to the public interest. It depends on the regulators whether there would be monopolies or not. There should be a transparent process. There is the issue of the security services - for 30 years these services have been working for something else. You have been in this game for 30 years. We have not achieved what we need to for a normal European state, and it all starts from a sense of responsibility and keeping our word. We gave our word for 18 months of governance with only a rotation of prime ministers. You didn't like it, then you shouldn’t have agreed to it. Do we have the will or should we continue to watch the circuses of “There is Such a People”, the betrayal of "Vazrazhdane", said Kiril Petkov of WCC-DB.

Images by Dessislava Kulelieva

Here is the entire proposal of WCC-DB to GERB-UDF:

"According to the Constitution, a second exploratory mandate to form a government is to be handed. By decision of the Parliamentary Group of the coalition "We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria" and the bodies of the parties in the coalition, we confirm our readiness to implement this mandate as a national, respectively joint, with the Parliamentary Group of GERB - UDF.

We are ready to do it in compliance with the commitments we mutually made 9 months ago in the following framework:

• Signing by the chairs of the two parliamentary groups of the Agreement containing specific guarantees for reforms in the judicial system, regulators and security services with clear dates for implementation;
• Prime Minister: a mutually acceptable candidate nominated by the GERB-UDF parliamentary group;
• Complement: the current complement of the Council of Ministers, insofar as the negotiations for the implementation of the first mandate revealed that the parties could not agree on changes in the complement as required under our initial mutual commitments to form a rotating government and in the draft agreement;
• Structure: maintaining the current structure of the Council of Ministers.

"This is not an invitation for further negotiations but an expression of our willingness to honour the commitments we made publicly 9 months ago. Our duty to Bulgaria makes us be responsible and use the last chance the Constitution provides us with and make a last attempt to not throw the country into a crisis and a series of elections.

If GERB-UDF refuse the proposal, we will consider our commitments observed and will return the second cabinet-forming mandate to the President unfulfilled.

We are looking forward to a formal response with your decision by the date on which the second mandate for forming a government is to be handed by the President," Atanasov said, addressing GERB-UDF.

Earlier on March 26, Bulgaria's Parliament adopted a resolution that the first mandate to seek to form a government with Mariya Gabriel of GERB-UDF as Prime Minister has not succeeded.