On the second day, the president’s consultations with the parliamentaryly represented formations continued, which, according to the Constitution, are a mandatory procedure before proceeding with the handing over of the first exploratory mandate to form a government.
On Monday, Rumen Radev met with the governing parties GERB and PP-DB, as well as with the DPS, which supports them. Talks with the opposition are scheduled for today. The first meeting was with “Vazrazhdane”.
The party used the consultations to attack the president for the failed party-initiated referendum on the euro.
The leader of “Vazrazhdane” Kostadin Kostadinov accused Radev of the fact that “the situation in the country is like this” because last year “the most democratic urge of the Bulgarians – the holding of the referendum on the preservation of the leva” was trampled. In 2023, the National Assembly rejected the proposal to hold a referendum, and in February the Constitutional Court declared this decision legal. However, “Vazrazhdane” continues to use the theme.
“You should have stood up for the protection of the Bulgarian people, but you didn’t,” Kostadinov told Radev on Tuesday.
“This is absolutely false and I urge you not to inspire your supporters from the rostrum of the presidential institution. I am guided only by the Constitution,” replied Radev.
Otherwise, without surprise, “Vazrazhdane” announced that, in their opinion, there should be early elections.
Later, Radev asked BSP representatives how they assessed the “residual political resource” for forming a government within this parliament. In response, the leader of the socialists, Kornelia Ninova, also developed the thesis that for early elections. We do not see the possibility that some other configuration will be decided in this National Assembly, or at least I state that we will not participate,” she added.
“This government betrayed the expectations of hundreds of thousands of people for a change in the guessed model of governance,” Ninova said.
Radev’s meeting with the third opposition party in this National Assembly – “There is such a people” – is coming up today.
Meanwhile, negotiations continue regarding the rotation between GERB and PP-DB. The two formations are trying to agree on a management document that will bear a different name from the memorandum already proposed by PP-DB and the draft agreement of GERB. There is also silence about the details of the talks – they do not say on which topics they still do not have serious differences, as well as on which they have already agreed. The day before the president, the resigned Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, who is part of the PP-DB negotiating team , announced “substantial progress” in the negotiations with Boyko Borisov’s party. GERB’s Maria Gabriel, who is a member of the GERB team and is expected to become prime minister after the rotation, asked the president for more time.
According to the constitution, the head of state must hold consultations before handing over the first mandate to the largest parliamentary group – in this case, GERB. However, he does not have a specific deadline to do it. Rumen Radev has shown that he can both rush and delay. On Monday, he signaled that he was ready to give GERB and PP-DB the necessary time to understand each other.
After the first mandate is handed to GERB, there is already a deadline – 7 days, in which the party can keep it before implementing it or returning it. It seems that the plan of GERB and PP-DB is to reach an agreement on the mechanisms of governance and for Gabriel to return the mandate as fulfilled at the very moment when Radev handed it to her.
For now, there is rather no option for a government with the second mandate, which should be handed to the current mandate holders from the PP-DB. On Monday, Denkov announced that if a cabinet is not formed with the first mandate, we will rather go to elections.
