site.btaUPDATED CC Co-leader Kiril Petkov: CC-DB Group Will Not Enter Plenary Hall, GERB, MRF and Vazrazhdane Are Hidden Majority

The parliamentary group of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) will not enter the plenary because we have clearly warned that the things that have been happening in recent days are unacceptable, said CC co-leader Kiril Petkov at a briefing in Parliament on Friday.

"Let's list everything again very clearly. First - one of the biggest events in the last two weeks was the replacement of Ivan Geshev with Borislav Sarafov. We demanded that the Minister of Justice be heard in the hall and we were blocked by the hidden majority of GERB, the Movement for Rights and Freedom (MRF) and Vazrazhdane", Petkov said. "The same afternoon the Legal Affairs Committee asked to hear the Justice Minister about this same exchange between Geshev and Sarafov, the committee was blocked by GERB, MRF and Vazrazhdane", Petkov added.

He pointed out that the GERB-UDF and the CC-DB had a preliminary agreement that the anti-corruption legislation prepared by both forces will enter simultaneously in the plenary hall for discussion at first reading. "Our bill was rejected by the same majority," Petkov stressed. 

"We explained very clearly that this cannot continue. Yesterday afternoon, three regulators - the Court of Auditors, the Bulgarian National Bank and the National Health Insurance Fund - were brought into committee. Our original agreement that all regulators would be carefully discussed by GERB, CC and DB so that for each regulator there would be only candidates with impeccable reputation was also broken," Petkov added. 

"There is no way we can put the control of the state in the hands of this majority without discussion, disguised and in haste. The Bulgarian state and the Bulgarian people do not deserve to have regulators who are the same as before", said Kiril Petkov. 

He also announced that the entire CC-DB parliamentary group will confer on Friday to come up with a declaration on its actions from now on if, in his words, GERB-UDF continues with its approach of "slowly amending the agreement". 

Asked by journalists whether resigning was one of the options being discussed, Petkov said, "Potentially - yes".

There Is Such a People leader Slavi Trifonov commented in a Facebook post that he "has never heard of any ruling party in the world to not want to be in the plenary hall of Parliament".