site.btaUPDATED Parliament Rejects Fourth No-Confidence Vote Against Zhelyazkov Cabinet

The National Assembly has rejected the fourth no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov's cabinet. The vote, brought over failure in the environmental and water management sector, was defeated with 83 votes in favor and 131 against.

The government was supported by GERB-UDF (64 votes), MRF - New Beginning (29), BSP - United Left (19), There Is Such a People (15) and 4 unaffiliated. 

The votes against the government came from Vazrazhdane (32 votes), Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (14), MECh (10) and Velichie (10), as well as Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB). Of the CC-DB coalition, CC have declared beforehand that they were going to back the no-confidence motion while DB said they would not vote save for one leader's voice against the Cabinet. That produced a total of 17 votes from CC-DB (out of a total of 36 MPs in this group) in favour of the no-confidence motion.

The motion was initiated by the parliamentary group Velichie and supported by MPs from MECh and Vazrazhdane.

Debate on the motion took place on Wednesday and lasted nearly four hours.

This marks the fourth unsuccessful no-confidence vote against the Zhelyazkov government. The previous three were based on claims of failure in foreign policy, anti-corruption efforts, and fiscal policy, respectively.