site.btaWrap-up: Leaders of Some Parliamentary Parties Meet Jan. 20 to Discuss Third Government Mandate

The leaders of some parliamentary parties will be meeting Friday, January 20, on the initiative of BSP for Bulgaria leader Korneliya Ninova to discuss policy priorities and the options for forming a government on the third mandate handed by the President to the Socialists. All political groups were invited to attend but only some accepted the invitation, said Ninova Thursday. Those to attend are GERB-UDF, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), and Bulgarian Rise. 

Democratic Bulgaria said they would gladly go to bilateral meetings but not to a meeting where all leaders participate. Continue the Change said they are ready for a trilateral meeting with the Socialists and Democratic Bulgaria.

On Wednesday, the National Council of BSP for Bulgaria gave a mandate to the leadership to hold talks on forming a government with all parliamentary formations. Korneliya Ninova announced the main topics on which she believes a consensus can be reached: the budget for 2023; Bulgaria's accession to Schengen; the laws that the legislature needs to pass to pave the way to the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the revision of its energy chapter; and judicial reform. 

Following is a soundbite of the Thursday comments by the political leaders:

GERB leader Boyko Borissov wrote in a Facebook post Thursday that he had spoken with Korneliya Ninova and told her that he would attend the Friday leaders' meeting. "I did not put any conditions. The decision of the [GERB] National Meeting is clear: we cannot participate in or back a BSP government. I believe, however, that it is time for serious talk between the party leaders. We owe our voters respect and responsibility," Borissov wrote.

MRF deputy floor leader Yordan Tsonev told journalists in Parliament that the third mandate is not doomed if there is dialogue. On the priorities announced by the Left, there is agreement with MRF, he said adding that how things will go depends on the leadership meeting. The format is not so important: the important thing is that it should yield results, he said. "Whether it will produce results, I cannot say, given that the situation with the dialogue is very nasty," he said. According to him, there needs to be more dialogue between the parliamentary. 

Tsonev recalled that the MRF had gone even further in their idea of a judicial reform, proposing constitutional changes, which, in his words, were approved by Europe but shelved in Bulgaria with no comment. 

Continue the Change co-chair Kiril Petkov told reporters in parliament on Thursday that his party will not participate in the leadership meeting and insists on a meeting with Democratic Bulgaria and BSP for Bulgaria. He said he received an invitation from Ninova on Thursday morning and informed her about the decision taken by the Continue the Change National Council late Wednesday to refrain from supporting a government with the mandate of the Left.

Petkov said that his party would gladly meet with BSP and Democratic Bulgaria to discuss priorities and policies, but would not go to a meeting involving GERB, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, and Bulgarian Rise. "We are willing to show respect to BSP similarly to how they showed respect to us. We are ready to have a conversation about policies," Petkov said.

Democratic Bulgaria co-leader Hristo Ivanov told reporters on Thursday that his party is willing to meet with BSP for Bulgaria in order to discuss the third mandate to name a prime minister designate. "But if they [BSP] are looking for our support, we would advise them to hold meetings in a bilateral format. At this point, we do not see a condition to engage in a leadership meeting," Ivanov specified.

According to Ivanov, early elections are inevitable, because the upcoming leadership meeting has no chance of producing a working government. He defined the meetings as "just talks meant to show that we talk to each other before we go to elections". Still, Ivanov stated that his party is ready to meet with other parties, whether publicly or behind closed doors, in order to hold bilateral talks.

Ivanov spoke about Democratic Bulgaria's political priorities: a growing economy with contained inflation, eurozone entry in 2024, security alongside Bulgaria's Euro-Atlantic allies, and judicial reform ensuring accountable prosecution service. He pointed out that DB and BSP have significant disagreements on many of these priorities.

On the subject of potentially uniting with Continue the Change, Ivanov said a decision has yet to be made by the national bodies of the parties in the coalition. The lawmaker said it is important to collaborate, but the priority is to preserve the parties' identities and ideologies - especially DB's, since their role is to represent a democratic community spanning several generations.

Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov told journalists in parliament on Thursday that he had received an invitation from the Bulgarian Socialist Party to the leaders' meeting taking place on Friday at 11 a.m. but he is not going because his party "does not see the point of something like that". Vazrazhdane, too, urges for bilateral talks.

The party is convinced that no regular government will be formed with the third mandate. 

MPs see each other every Wednesday and there is no result from these meetings, Kostadinov said. He noted that there are some priorities on which his party and BSP agree, but there are others on which they disagree. 

Bulgarian Rise leader Stefan Yanev told reporters he would accept the invitation of Korneliya Ninova to the leaders' meeting. Yanev expressed hope that the talks will be constructive. The idea is to have some results from the talks, otherwise "we are staging a little play with which we are deceiving ourselves and the people". Common ground should be found during the talks in order to form a government, he said, adding that Bulgarian Rise will insist on a written agreement.