site.btaPM: Cabinet Has Tackled Held-Over Crises

Addressing the legislature on Tuesday as it debated a bill that will extend the application of the 2022 budget into 2023, caretaker Prime Minister Galab Donev reacted to criticism from Continue the Change and BSP for Bulgaria and said it is "convenient to attack the caretaker Government amid multiple crises" that it has inherited, and is now minimizing their impact. 

He recalled that during the election campaign in August and September 2022, nearly all parties urged the caretaker government not to prepare and submit new bills for the national budget and the budgets of the National Health Insurance Fund and the Public Social Insurance. "A quick transformation happened after the elections as it became clear that Parliamentary consolidation is hard to achieve and there is no majority to set out, through the fiscal policies and the budget, policies for the medium term. And they [the parties] changed the tune: the caretaker Government should submit new bills for the national budget and the budgets of the National Health Insurance Fund and the Public Social Insurance," said Donev.

He thus reacted to a statement in the plenary hall made earlier during Parliament's sitting in which Venko Sabrutev MP (Continue the Change) criticized Donev's Government for moving to extend the 2022 budget into next year instead of proposing a brand new one.

BSP for Bulgaria went even further as its leader Kornelia Ninova accused the Prime Minister of violating the public finance legislation.

In his remarks to the MPs, Galab Donev highlighted "the galloping prices resulting from deals that were non-transparent and guaranteed an increase in gas prices".  "We continued the policy of compensating the energy costs of non-domestic electricity consumers and Bulgarian citizens with low incomes," he added and went on to announce that a new programme would be adopted Wednesday "to ensure that people would get help to cope with heating and lighting costs during the winter months". The range of people eligible for energy allowances has also been broadened.

Donev dismissed the accusations that the caretaker Government is doing nothing as groundless and populist, and said they aim at something other than the main task of this Parliament - to form a majority and elect a government. 

In his words, the main goal and task of the caretaker Government was to address and solve problems facing Bulgarian citizens. "We have dealt with this and we are dealing with it," Donev said, adding that the majority of Bulgarians appreciate the efforts of the Government "to guarantee heating, lighting and security in the situation that has been created in Europe and the world".

He said further: "Through its measures and other efforts, the Government has brought down inflation, lowered the prices of fuels in Bulgaria and is working to guarantee an increase in incomes. The Government has resolved the crises it inherited. You cannot blame the Government for things that are beyond its mandate in the two or three months it has."