Bulgaria’s new parliament has been unable to muster a majority to elect a speaker for the past week, blocking its work and increasing the risk of another early general election.

On Friday, the third attempt to elect a speaker of the newly elected 51st National Assembly failed. Candidates from the first two political forces, Raya Nazaryan (GERB/EPP) and Andrei Tsekov (PP-DB, Renew Europe, EPP), were put to the vote, but neither received the required majority.

The political stakes are higher because the parliament speaker is in a position to be appointed as a future caretaker prime minister if Bulgaria goes to the polls again this winter. For the past eight months, the caretaker prime minister has been Dimitar Glavchev, a former member of former prime minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB party.

Without a speaker, the parliament cannot function, meaning that it cannot continue with the process of electing a government, nor can it pass the important laws related to the recovery plan.

Borissov, for his part, spoke of a possible coalition with the PP-DB, the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party (PES), and the populist There Is Such a People.

He is still postponing the start of official coalition talks with the PP-DB because the pro-European liberal coalition has its own red line – Borissov is to sign a declaration that he will impose a “cordon sanitaire” on political leader Delyan Peevski, who has been sanctioned by the US and Britain for corruption.

Peevski and his MRF-New Beginning (11.5%) are now the fourth political force in parliament, but suspicions of Peevski’s shadowy control of the judiciary and special services, as well as large-scale vote-buying, which he denies, make alliances difficult.

On Friday, Borissov indicated that he wanted to form a coalition with the PP-DB, saying he had made written commitments on all issues, but there has been no confirmation.

“Their (PP-DB) main demands, I signed them and sent it to them. And about the imposition of a “sanitary cordon” (on Peevski) and about the other deals they wanted. And I started a conversation because you see that reckless things at the moment lead to complete chaos in the state,” Borissov said on Friday.

There is still no confirmation that Borissov has indeed given the necessary political guarantees.

“I heard from Mr Borissov that he has agreed with the ‘sanitary cordon’ if this is true, I don’t see any obstacle on their side to have a leadership meeting,” said influential MP and former justice minister of the PP-DB Nadezhda Yordanova.

Borissov’s condition for coalition negotiations with the other parties is precisely the support of his deputy as parliament speaker, which would consolidate his power in the event of a prolonged political crisis and the appointment of a new caretaker prime minister.

“Borissov is also almost in a deadlock. In a new election, then perhaps Peevski and (the radical pro-Orban party) MECh will grow, meaning Borissov will find it even harder to form a government and may have even fewer mandates,” political analyst Parvan Simeonov of Gallup International Balkan said.

Simeonov argues that there is hope of forming a government in this parliament because politicians are really trying to work for it.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)

Source: Euractiv.com