site.btaUPDATED CC-DB Will Not Support No-Confidence Motions Until Bulgaria Joins the Eurozone, Says Kiril Petkov

The parliamentary group of the Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) coalition will continue to refrain from supporting no-confidence motions against the government until the official date of Bulgaria’s entry into the eurozone is announced, CC Co-Chair and former prime minister Kiril Petkov said on Wednesday during the parliamentary debate on the latest motion of no confidence. The motion of no confidence was submitted by the Morality, Unity, Honour (MECh) parliamentary group on April 10 over corruption and is backed by the MPs of Vazrazhdane and Velichie. "When the date is announced, we will initiate our own no-confidence motion, in which we will also use many of the arguments raised today," Petkov added.

"In this year’s [2025 State] budget, BGN 100 million was allocated to private hospitals so they would not have to conduct public procurement procedures for medicines, while at the same time, there are no funds for raising the salaries of young doctors and nurses. This clearly shows lobbying in favour of private healthcare institutions," Petkov emphasized.

According to him, another major issue is the case involving the Chiren gas storage facility. "We have EU funds, a European prosecutor who has been threatened, and witnesses — yet somehow the Interior Ministry knows nothing about it. So, the big question is: what is actually being done? We saw that the budget has a deficit of BGN 7 billion, potentially going into the Bulgarian Development Bank and into state-owned enterprises under the old model," Petkov continued and pointed to the cost of the road reconstruction the Ruse-Byala section of the North-South expressway, set at BGN 50 million per kilometre, as another example of corrupt practices.

"We agree that this government has shown serious shortcomings in its approach to fight corruption, and it is not good for it to continue this way. On the other hand, we have clearly presented our two priorities — fighting corruption and being at the heart of Europe," he stressed, reminding that Bulgaria expects to receive a eurozone entry date in two months. "We will wait for those two months, after which we will initiate our own no-confidence motion," Petkov reiterated.