site.btaCC-DB Co-Chair Ivanov: CC-DB Proposed Model with Regular Government Acting as Caretaker Government

Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) co-chair Hristo Ivanov told reporters here on Tuesday that CC-DB proposed a model in which the regular government continues to act as a caretaker government.

Ivanov added: "After consultations with the leadership of GERB and the MRF (Movement for Rights and Freedoms), we came to the other possible model. That model is more complicated to implement, because more steps are required, but it has its pros."

Ivanov said that having the country head for early elections before completing the Constitutional reform is bad. He also criticized President Rumen Radev for trying to "set traps" that could revert the country to its previous state, when Radev was the sole entity to make decisions.

Ivanov said: "We had planned legislation on caretaker governments, however, there was no time for it to happen. Then there was a constitutional committee to work on the texts. It did work on the specific texts. Negotiations took place at every stage, and compromises were made [...]. The insinuation that one person was in charge, while everyone else followed and voted in line like sheep is demeaning to everyone and to the National Assembly."

CC-DB co-chair Atanas Atanasov said that while working on the legislation concerning the election of a caretaker prime minister, CC-DB sought to include a series of officials who are elected by the National Assembly.

Atanasov emphasized the importance of having fair and transparent elections. He said: "For this reason, we would like once again to call on the caretaker prime minister not to propose the current Interior Minister, Kalin Stoyanov, in the Government. We, the CC-DB coalition, have no confidence in this person." Atanasov stated that neither Stoyanov nor his Ministry ever organized any campaigns to go after the organizers behind vote buying.

Atanasov concluded: "Ultimately, the caretaker Prime Minister would do well to hear the voices of the main political parties on what they think a government that has the primary task of organizing fair elections should look like."