“Emotional Night Meeting: “Continuing The Change” Approves Political Cabinet in Joint Government with GERB-SDS”

An emotional night meeting of the National Council of Continuing the Change was held late on Sunday. It had to approve the agreements reached with GERB-SDS for a joint government, in which the Prime Minister – Nikolay Denkov from “Promyanata” and Maria Gabriel from GERB – changes every six months.

During the night meeting, the “Change” council had to approve whether the ministers in the cabinet should be politicians or experts, as is currently the agreement with GERB. The leaders of “Democratic Bulgaria” – the coalition partner of the PP – also hold an expert cabinet.

However, the co-chairman of “Promyanata” Kiril Petkov imposed the decision for a political cabinet, said participants in the night meeting. Initially, his request was rejected on the grounds that the contracts with DB were anyway for the expert profile of the ministers. However, emotional persuasion followed, in which Petkov repeated several times to his people: “This is how we save Bulgaria”. He also emphasized that he is aware that an alliance with GERB-SDS in any form is the end of “Continuing the change”, but the decision must be made for the sake of Bulgaria’s future.

After the emotional outbursts, the decision was re-voted and this time Kiril Petkov’s request for a political government was supported. The official explanation was that with such wording it would be possible for the other co-chairman of “Promyanata”, Asen Vassilev, to take the position of finance minister and possibly deputy prime minister. As “24 Chasa” already wrote, this was an insistence of the PP even during the negotiations with GERB. So far, however, it has only been agreed that during the first rotation, Nikolay Denkov will be prime minister, and Maria Gabriel foreign minister and deputy prime minister.

Kiril Petkov’s insistence on a political profile of the government is not only because of Asen Vasilev, but also because of his own participation as a minister, some of the members of the “Change” national council suspect.

After the emotional meeting in the PP, they are waiting for the last word from their coalition partners from “Democratic Bulgaria”. There, the position is for an expert cabinet, but Hristo Ivanov, Atanas Atanasov and Vladislav Panev have not yet been officially notified of the nightly decision of “The Change”. However, Panev is in informal contact with the PP and warned them in advance that the DB will not train political figures for the government and prefer an expert profile.

Because of the complex configuration in the DB, each of the three parties – “Yes, Bulgaria” of Hristo Ivanov, DSB of Atanas Atanasov and “Green Movement” of Vladislav Panev – must make its own decision. And then a general coalition should be announced. This procedure may not end until 3:00 p.m. on May 22, when President Rumen Radev expects Maria Gabriel to return the GERB-SDS government mandate to him. The preliminary agreement with PP-DB is that Gabriel will go together with Nikolay Denkov and return an empty folder. And then the two announce the formula of the government with a rotating prime minister with the second term. In the absence of decisions by any of the party bodies in PP-DB, however, Denkov had no way to go.