site.btaUPDATED GERB to Nominate Different Foreign Minister If Gabriel Not Wanted by Government Partners, Borissov Says

GERB leader Boyko Borissov told journalists that his party will nominate another foreign minister if GERB’s partners in the government "non-coalition", Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), do not agree Mariya Gabriel to be prime minister and foreign minister after the cabinet rotation.

“This is the only option”, Borissov said, commenting on the dispute over the matter.

Borissov said he met with Denkov, Petkov and Movement for Rights and freedoms floor leader Delyan Peevski on Wednesday morning, with whom they discussed the demands of the protesting farmers and grain growers. The energy industry was also a topic of that conversation, including how to save from bankruptcy the state-owned Maritsa East 2 thermal power plant and coal mining. According to Borissov, the four of them agreed to provide some BGN 160 million to miners next week.

He said that he and Kiril Petkov held a three-hours long friendly conversation about the state and its governance in Borissov’s office on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, CC co-leader Kiril Petkov said that Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel should switch posts as part of the upcoming rotation in the Cabinet. It is the most logical for Gabriel to head only the government, and not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well, because the prime minister's task is hard enough; it is not a good idea to combine it with an additional role, Petkov argued. Later that day, Borissov responded to Petkov that the way out is to make Gabriel prime minister and foreign minister, and Denkov to become deputy prime minister and education minister. Thus far, GERB and CC-DB have been arguing only over who will head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.