At the EU summit yesterday (15 December), Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov shoot in all directions, accusing the President Rumen Radev, and the two main opposition forces BSP and DPS of trying to put down his cabinet during the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU.
However, Borissov’s biggest problem may be within his own coalition, with one of the nationalist leaders, Veleri Simeonov, lashing at the PM over “treachery” to deliver on a tourist business project (a second ski lift in Bansko), decried by environmentalists.
Nationalists in Bulgaria’s cabinet: What risks for the Presidency?
Borissov said at the EU summit, answering one of the questions I asked him:
“I call on the colleagues from the Presidency, and from DPS and BSP, to make proof of some good sense during these six months. I understand they feel bad, and the jealousy is big, but let’s try during six months to be a little patriotic [he said Bulgarian].”
Borissov: “I call on the colleagues from the office of President Radev and from DPS and BSP to make proof of some good sense during these 6 months. I understand they feel bad, and jealousy is big, but let’s try during 6 months to be a little patriotic” https://t.co/dpkqrKDxds
— Georgi Gotev (@GeorgiGotev) December 16, 2017
This is not the first time Borissov accuses the socialists of trying to wreck the Presidency, but this time he also included DSP, the Movement of Rights and Freedoms, the leading force representing mainly the ethnic Turks in Bulgaria.
Borissov: The Socialists want to ruin the Bulgarian Presidency
Unlike the socialists, who would like to topple Borissov, DPS has been asking for a re-formating of the coalition, with Borisov’s GERB party dropping the nationalists. It remains unclear how Borissov would replace the nationalists, as DPS didn’t state a desire to join the government.
DPS has a strange relationship with GERB. The main power broker in the country, Delyan Peevski, is an MP reelected thanks to placed very high in the DPS lists.
The BSP leader Kornelia Ninova replied to Borissov’s Brussels comments from the city of Dobtich, where she attended an anniversary of the local BSP orgainsation.
“I t is not envy, but despair that will bring down Borissov”, Ninova said, replying to his comment that BSP envies him.
“I ask Borissov: are the pensioners protesting out of envy? Or the policemen, who protest every day in different cities, or the mothers of children with disabilities, are they envious people ” Ninova said. She hammered out that it was not envy, but despair that was motivating different strata of the Bulgarian society to sand up against Borissov.
The Bulgarian socialist party has filed a no-confidence motion against the Borissov cabinet to be voted on 17 January.
Kiril Dobrev, a leading BSP figure, said the vote has nothing to do with the Bulgarian Presidency, but added that BSP would like to see the European EPP elite to come and see its Bulgarian brainchild.
He reminded that there were many projects in Bulgaria investigated by Olaf, the EU anti-fraud office.
“There are so many senseless projects that have been realised only to absorb EU finds”, he said.
Dobrev slammed the GERB draft legislation aiming at putting in place an anti-corruption body controlled by the Prime Minister.
He also made it clear that BSP and DPS were not in agreement. “We want this government out, while DPS only want the Patriots out”, he said.
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