New prospects for forming government in Bulgaria

The chances of a new government being formed are growing after President Rumen Radev handed a mandate to form a government to the Bulgarian Socialist Party, which has managed to bring the populist ‘There Is Such a People’ party, which left the ruling coalition in mid-June, back to the negotiating table.

The negotiations are being conducted between the leading parliamentary force ‘The change continues,’ the socialists, ‘There is such a people’ and the pro-European centre-right ‘Democratic Bulgaria.’ Together, they have enough votes to elect a new government.

The condition for Bulgaria to have a government is for a truce between ‘Change continues’ and ‘There is such a people’ to be reached.

“We see certain signs that the chances of forming a government are increasing. We will need more time for these processes. Patience, professionalism, and we may be able to have a government, which will be good for the country,” said the co-chairman of Democratic Bulgaria, Hristo Ivanov, after the political negotiations on Thursday.

“We must avoid pushing the country towards elections because there are many risks – politically, as well as in the situation in the energy sector, in the economy, in the field of security, and healthcare. That’s why we look at the possibility of electing a government as something that should be supported,” Ivanov said.

As the largest political group in parliament, Change Continues will nominate the candidate for prime minister. It is expected that this will be the former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Asen Vassilev, but the former speaker of the parliament, Nikola Minchev, is also highly recommended as a consensus figure.

The other political condition is that ‘There is such a people’ support the country’s new anti-corruption legislation and the appointment of Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov as head of the future anti-corruption commission.

(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)