site.btaGovernment Is Stable, Will Withstand Marathon of No-Confidence Motions, Says Joint Governance Council Chair Kostadinov

The government is stable and will certainly withstand the marathon of no-confidence motions initiated by the opposition, said Kostadin Angelov, rotating chair of the Joint Governance Council and deputy floor leader of the GERB-UDF parliamentary group, speaking to bTV on Sunday. “A key indicator of this stability is the 171 MPs who signed in support of the government’s main goal – Bulgaria’s accession to the eurozone,” Angelov noted. In his view, a no-confidence vote cannot bring down the government.

Commenting on remarks made on Saturday by National Assembly Chair Nataliya Kiselova, who described the coalition as “partners by necessity”, Angelov replied that “there is no such thing as ‘necessity’ here – we signed a governing agreement with full awareness of the importance of what unites us, not what divides us”.

“Our primary goal was to have a functioning government, to stabilize public finances, to bring Bulgaria into the eurozone, and to revive the Recovery and Resilience Plan – which is already underway – so that we can receive all payments under it,” he added.

In response to Kiselova’s metaphor, Angelov urged people to think of the governing coalition as a family: “Where there is fire, there is bound to be some smoke. What matters in a family is to look in the same direction – just as we do in the Joint Governance Council and in the coalition”.

Angelov described relations within the coalition as “normal”, emphasizing that pluralism is respected and every step is discussed on a daily basis.

Regarding Vice President Iliana Iotova’s comment that the government will remain in office as long as MRF Chair and MRF–New Beginning Floor Leader Delyan Peevski decides, Angelov called it pitty. “If that is the slogan of her future presidential campaign, it is a shame. Once again, we’d have a campaign that divides Bulgarians, when the role of a presidential candidate should be to unite the nation,”

Earlier this week, the cabinet of Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov survived its third no-confidence motion – this one over “failures in fiscal policy”. A fourth motion, focused on “failures in environmental and water policy”, according to the opposition, is expected to be held later in July.

The third motion was supported by 54 MPs from Vazrazhdane, Velichie, and Morality, Unity, Honour. It was voted against by 130 MPs from GERB-UDF, MRF – New Beginning, BSP – United Left, There Is Such a People, and four independent MPs. Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms did not participate in the vote.