Bulgaria’s government is at risk of collapse less than a month after taking office amid tensions between the two political formations that backed it — Gerb-SDS and Change Continues-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB).
The spat between the political rivals turned partners erupted a few days ago, when Gerb joined forces with two other parties to adopt changes to the anti-corruption law that were not backed by CC-DB.
Previously, the two formations agreed on a joint legislation programme and a government headed by CC-DB’s Nikolai Denkov for the first nine months, to be replaced by Gerb’s Mariya Gabriel for another nine months. However, they did not sign a coalition agreement as CC-DB was reluctant to do so.
On June 22, CC’s co-leader Kiril Petkov accused Boyko Borissov’s Gerb of putting at risk the existence of the government with its actions. In return, Borissov responded that CC-DB cannot expect anything else since there is no coalition agreement.
The following day, CC-DB requested guarantees from Gerb on the sustainable work of the government and threatened that otherwise the cabinet will resign.
Petkov read a declaration from the coalition to the media, inviting Gerb to a meeting on June 24 to formalise the guarantees in a document.
CC-DB wants guarantees that Gerb will stick to the already agreed moves of the two formations, including setting up a joint board to approve any appointments to key public positions, including the heads of state regulators, sticking to the already approved joint legislation programme, a roadmap for the reform of the judiciary and reform of the security services.
CC-DB also demands an agreement on the anti-corruption law changes, changes to the electoral law and a joint position on the referendum on delaying the euro adoption requested by the far-right pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party.
Source : Intellinews
