A new cabinet composed of opposing political forces was approved by MPs in parliament but criticised by the president and compared to Frankenstein’s monster by the opposition Socialists.
Bulgaria’s two-year period of repeat elections appeared to have come an end on Tuesday as a joint government created by political opponents GERB/United Democratic Forces and We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria was approved by parliament.
The new government came to power with 132 votes in favour and 69 against.
The two blocs ↗, which are each other’s main foes, will take office with a cabinet that will govern for 18 months.
It will be led for the first nine months by We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria, with Nickolay Denkov as prime minister, and for the second nine months by GERB/United Democratic Forces, with Denkov resigning and Mariya Gabriel stepping in ↗.
Since early 2021 Bulgaria has endured repeated elections and rounds of failed coalition talks, only briefly interrupted by the nine-month reformist coalition administration led by We Continue the Change with Kiril Petkov as prime minister.
Both GERB/United Democratic Forces and We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria have framed the partnership as a compromise for Bulgaria’s future.
“We have far too many dividing lines with GERB and they won’t disappear just because we’re creating a cabinet,” Hristo Ivanov, leader of Democratic Bulgaria, said in parliament.
Ivanov said he sees the new government as an “interim cabinet but one selected by parliament” and a way for the parliament to have an extended life in which reforms can be passed.
President Rumen Radev remains highly skeptical of the unlikely union, however.
“I hope that parliament won’t betray the national interests in the same way the leaders of the coalition have already betrayed their voters,” said Radev, who in 2021 helped We Continue the Change’s Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev launch their career in politics by choosing them in his interim cabinet before the duo established their own party.
After We Continue the Change won elections in November 2021 and expressed a pro-Ukraine and pro-military aid stance, Radev turned vehemently against the coalition led by Petkov.
Radev’s tone was emulated by There’s Such a People, whose MP Filip Stanev called the new cabinet “the league of extraordinary frauds”.
Pro-Kremlin parties Revival and Bulgarian Socialist Party were also heavily critical of the new government.
Kornelia Ninova, leader of the Socialists, showed her disdain for the new cabinet by reading a statement generated by ChatGPT and describing the government as a “one-armed, double-headed Frankenstein”.
Revival leader Kostadin Kostadinov said that We Continue the Change’s members should be arrested for a “velvet coup d’ètat” for “collaborating with the US”, referring to a leaked audiotape ↗ in which party members were heard discussing coordination with unspecified embassies.
Surprisingly, MPs from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, which is focused on the Turkish diaspora and is a traditional ally to GERB, only cast two votes in favour of the cabinet – those of leader Mustafa Karadaya and Magnitsky-sanctioned, Pandora Papers-exposed oligarch Delyan Peevski ↗.
Meanwhile, Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev ↗continues to put pressure on the new government.
On Tuesday, the prosecution said it was investigating Petkov for being nominated as interim Economy Minister in 2021 in a breach of the constitution because he held a dual Bulgarian and Canadian citizenship. Petkov stated that he is ready to give up his political immunity. A previous investigation by the prosecution in 2021 said that there was no wrongdoing.
The prosecution has previously looked into the allegation that GERB leader Boyko Borissov was involved in money-laundering ↗. On Tuesday, the prosecution said that there is new evidence in the case, connected to schemes in Turkey.
