site.btaAfter All Three Government-Forming Mandates Fail, President Has to Find a Caretaker PM but that May Be an Uphill Task

After the third – and last – government-forming mandate was declined by There Is Such a People (TISP) on Thursday, President Rumen Radev started talks with the people in the pool of potential caretaker Prime Ministers, as per the 2023 revisions in the Constitution, but getting one to accept the job may turn out to be an uphill task.

Things came to this point after long and difficult talks between the first and second largest groups in the legislature, GERB-UDF and Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB). They failed to agree on the details of a planned government rotation, and declined the government-forming mandates that were offered first to GERB and then to CC-DB, making snap elections imminent - the sixth since 2021.

Here is what happened on Thursday, in this order:

• President Radev offered the third mandate to There Is Such a People;
• TISP declined the mandate;
• The President said he would be holding talks with the potential caretaker Prime Ministers and met three of them, separately: Parliament Chair Rosen Zhelyazkov, National Audit Office President Dimitar Glavchev and Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev;
• The President said he would be meeting with all potential caretaker Prime Ministers on Friday and/or Saturday and Sunday.

The last mandate

TISP returned the mandate right after President Radev offered it to them, as they had said they would do.

On his way out of the President’s Office, TISP Floor Leader Toshko Yordanov put the blame for all squarely on CC-DB. He said the responsibility for the caretaker cabinet rests mostly with CC-DB, "who participated in this process, approved the names that should be given". “Whatever happens is their fault,” he claimed. According to him, GERB “made a deal with CC-DB and let their lawyers lead the process of changes" in the Basic Law. "[DB co-leader] Hristo Ivanov practically chose a caretaker cabinet for GERB", Yordanov argued. “We warned them about that,” he added.

He also said that TISP would be seeking a majority in the next Parliament “to fix the Constitution” but did not elaborate.

He reiterated that a 2-in-1 election, i.e. concurrent national and European elections, is a better option from the point of view of financial burden and voter turnout.

Socialist leader Korneliya Ninova told reporters that it was also "completely logical" that TISP received the third mandate and declined it. 

She said that she expects a 2-in-1 election. "The President should not delay the procedure so that we save money and do not make people go to the polls twice because this is virtually a guarantee of low turnout," she added.

The possible caretaker PMs

Under Article 99 of the Constitution, when no agreement on a government has been reached, the President, in consultation with the parliamentary groups and on the proposal of the candidate for caretaker Prime Minister, appoints a caretaker government and schedules new elections within two months. Following the amendments to the Constitution, the head of State may choose the caretaker Prime Minister from among the Parliament Chair, the Governor or one of three Deputy Governors of the Bulgarian National Bank, the President or one of two Deputy Presidents of the National Audit Office and the Ombudsman or his/her deputy.

It transpired Wednesday that Deputy Ombudsman Elena Cherneva-Markova resigned as of March 27, which effectively removes her from the pool of potential caretaker PMs.

Of the three potential caretaker government leaders, the central bank Governor, Dimitar Radev, was the only one to comment for the press, saying that it is a bad idea to get the central bank involved in the political process. 

No details were provided of the other two meetings with President Rumen Radev.

Dimitar Radev told reporters: "We had a productive conversation. The decision will be the President's to make. I shared my view that it is not a good idea to have the Bulgarian National Bank involved in the political process, at least for two groups of reasons. The first are purely substantive: it will cast a political shadow over the central bank, and for a long period of time. After 2015, a healthy distance has been achieved between the central bank and the political process and forces. There is also a number of legal reasons. There is a collision with national law, which is obvious, but what is little talked about is the collision with European law. The central bank governor and his role are explicitly defined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, its protocols, the statute of the European Central Bank, the statute of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). They are very clear that these positions cannot be combined. I am a member of the General Council of the European Central Bank. The code of ethics there explicitly states that the governor should avoid any participation in the political process and also should not attempt to take public positions outside that of a governor." 

The Code of Conduct for the Members of the Governing Council says that, in accordance with Article 108 of the Treaty establishing the European Community and Article 7 of the Statute of the ESCB, "members of the Governing Council, when exercising the powers and carrying out the tasks and duties conferred upon them, shall not seek or take instructions from Community institutions or bodies, from any government of a Member State or from any other body, including any decision-making body that they belong to. The members of the Governing Council shall act in the general interest of the euro area. For decisions to be taken in accordance with Article 10.3 of the Statute of the ESCB, Governors may also take into account the interest of their respective national central bank as shareholder." 

Speaking to reporters in Parliament, GERB leader Boyko Borissov said he "would never allow" Rosen Zhelyazkov, the Parliament Chair, to become caretaker Prime Minister - and "hopes it won't be" the National Audit Office President Dimitar Glavchev, either. "The only thing that I insist on, and what I will never allow in any way, is for Rosen Zhelyazkov to be the caretaker Prime Minister, and I truly hope that the President won't pick Dimitar Glavchev either," Borissov told reporters in Parliament. 

Both Glavchev and Zhelyazkov were nominated to their current positions by GERB as members of that party.

"They would be associated with GERB. Not that Parliament did not vote for them unanimously, but it won't be nice," he said. He went on to urge the President, through the news media, not to pick them for caretaker Prime Minister, "if possible".

Asked what would happen with the caretaker Prime Minister and if a constitutional crisis is possible, Borissov said: "There is one person to answer such questions: [DB co-leader] Hristo Ivanov. I have supported everything he has proposed [in terms of constitutional changes] and he has thanked me for that." 

In a comment for the press in Parliament, CC-DB Co-floor Leader Kiril Petkov said the President should now focus on talking to potential caretaker Prime Ministers so that “Bulgaria does not miss the opportunity to hold a 2-in-1 election”.

On Wednesday, President Radev said it may be too late for that.