Continuing the Change decided to take stock of the first three months of Parliament’s work by releasing a short video showing what they consider to be their significant success so far.
It should be noted that the people of Kiril Petkov and Asen Vassilev make the report only on their own behalf. It does not mention their partners in the right-wing coalition with “Democratic Bulgaria”; nor their allies from GERB in the Denkov-Gabriel joint cabinet; nor DPS, with which they made a parliamentary majority.
The other thing that is striking about the video is that it focuses on measures that have not worked so far or there is serious doubt that they will work at all.
The report opens with a shot at President Rumen Radev – it says the caretaker government of the head of state has delayed its adoption by 6 months, while the current parliament is adopting it in three weeks, with a 3 percent budget deficit (due to the country’s ambitions for eurozone membership – note a.). The government has already reinsured itself against future economic and financial problems by complaining of inherited “bombshells” from Radev’s office.
Then comes something the right is particularly proud of – the adoption of the Attorney General’s investigative mechanism. However, the report omits that it is not yet operational. A judge was chosen to temporarily take over the functions of prosecutor investigating the chief of public prosecutions; however, the procedure was interrupted when the ruling parliament twice brought new amendments to repair the newly adopted mechanism. Thus, in just two months, amendments to the amendments to the law are piling up, and the election of the special investigating prosecutor has been suspended.
The PP then brags about the changes to the Domestic Violence Protection Act. A definition of intimate relationship was inserted into it, which caused widespread consternation, as it set a minimum period of intimacy – at least 60 days. It turns out that if the couple hadn’t spent that much time together, neither partner would be able to take advantage of the domestic violence law’s protections if they needed one.
On top of everything, a hastily formed conservative majority in the parliament – of GERB-SDS, “Vazrazhdane”, BSP and ITN – specified in the law that an intimate relationship should only be between a man and a woman. This was a major blow to the PP and DB, and perhaps not coincidentally, the video later specifically emphasized that stiffer penalties for homophobic hate crimes had been approved in parliament.
The interesting thing is that among their most serious achievements, the PP points out that they passed the so-called company with variable capital. This happened with an amendment to the Trade Act, for which the former Minister of Innovation and failed candidate for European Commissioner Daniel Laurer long championed. The argument was that this would facilitate small companies offering innovative products and services, as well as foreign investors. The innovation was adopted, among other things, with the warm support of “Vazrazhdane”, which for nationalists turned out to be open supporters of foreign investment.
The PP also brags about the withdrawal of the Rosenets port concession from the Russian oil company Lukoil. The decision was pushed through together with GERB-SDS and DPS, and only two days after the announcement of the measure (there was also a scandal in the majority, as the Gerbers and the deputies accused the PP of taking credit for the proposal – note). It was not clear what the state’s strategy would be when the Russians sought compensation and penalties – because such was not mentioned at all in the reasons for the approved bill.
The report also added the abolition of the blue ticket for drivers (which, by the way, was an old idea of DB, not PP – note); the introduced heavier penalties for pedophilia and crimes against animals; as well as the rejected request of the DPS to increase the allowed amount of firewood for households. On the occasion of the latter, there was a comment on the video on Facebook, which read: “Hey, you are big pranksters, they also taught you how to murafetti … Every day there is wood cut and exported.”
Here is the video itself:
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2023-08-12 12:17:08
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