site.btaUPDATED PM Designate Denkov: Constitution Does Not Envisage Someone Advising Parliament Whether to Elect Government or Not

At a news briefing here on Monday, Nikolay Denkov, Prime Minister Designate of Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), expressed the opinion that the Constitution does not envisage someone advising the National Assembly whether to elect a government or not. Bulgaria needs a stable government and a working parliament, he noted, adding that the adoption of a state budget and of bills that have been aging in Parliament for years, are problems that can be solved only by forming a regular government. 

Denkov addressed the media after his parliamentary group received the second government-forming mandate from President Rumen Radev. 

Taking a question about the recording from a CC-DB meeting released by CC-DB parliamentary group breakaway Radostin Vasilev and the claims of discrediting of the national security and interference in the security services’ work, Denkov said that everyone has the right to interpret the recording as they see fit. “Let me recall, however, that two years ago, in 2021, the leaderships of the services were replaced, and that was presented as a normal parliamentary procedure,” he added. Asked if Continue the Change are worried that the prosecuting magistracy has been alerted about high treason, Denkov said there has been no high treason, because those are interpretations that have nothing to do with the truth. 

The recording released by Vasilev implies that there is an understanding to replace the heads of the special services and “the names are to be cleared with the embassy”. 

Asked whether there is still a chance to form a government after the recording was made public, Denkov said that the matter should be discussed with the other parliamentary groups: if they say they do not wish to participate, they should try to form a cabinet under the third mandate. In his words, the negotiations with GERB-UDF should be defrosted, and they should sit at the table and continue their talks in the coming days. It depends on Mariya Gabriel, GERB-UDF’s prime minister designate under the first government-forming mandate, whether the negotiations on a regular cabinet of GERB-UDF and CC-DB will continue, Denkov underscored.

Asked whether CC-DB are willing to make changes in their government lineup, Denkov said he would not comment on the matter until negotiations are held. 

“We have seven days to hold negotiations and specify the members of the future cabinet,” said Democratic Bulgaria co-leader Atanas Atanassov. 

Commenting on the topic of the security services, Atanassov said that the President got somewhat offended by CC-DB having said long ago that they have bills to be tabled in the National Assembly for a change in the way the security services are managed. The Constitution puts the Council of Ministers in charge of security and public order, and the President has no power in that respect. It is not right for him to appoint the services’ heads, and the current ones have been appointed by him at the proposal of his caretaker government, Atanassov argued.

Asked which embassy Continue the Change co-leader Assen Vassilev is referring to in the recordings, Atanassov said: “We are not serving any foreign embassies, the services are Bulgarian.” He went on to say that the national legislation requires the head of a security service to be checked for reliability, including towards Bulgaria’s NATO partners. That is a normal, legal procedure established in the Classified Information Act, Atanassov said.