Sofia, July 12 (BTA) - The leader of the There is Such a People
Party (TISP), TV entertainer-turned-poiltician Slavi Trifonov,
said here on Monday that his party is ready to propose its own
government headed by Nikolay Vasilev, a former deputy prime
minister and minister with various portfolios in the coalition
governments in  2001 to 2005 and in 2005 to 2009, where the
National Movement of Surge and Stability (formerly, the Simeon
II National Movement) of Bulgarian ex-monarch Simeon
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was the main coalition partner.

Trifonov said in a statement on his TV 7/8 that the so-called
parties of the protest movement have failed to win sufficient
support at Sunday's early parliamentary elections in order to
form a joint government, which is why his party is taking the
responsibility for Bulgaria's governance. Trifonov said that
there is no such thing as a minority or a majority government,
because "all governments are governments of Bulgaria".

The line-up of the proposed government is as follows:

Nikolay Vasilev - Prime Minister
Radi Naydenov - Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister
Nikolai Radulov - Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister
Mariya Boychinova - Minister of Finance
Lyubomir Datsov - Minister of Economy
Natalia Miteva - Minister of Education
Krasimir Nenov - Minister of Energy
Velislava Petrova - Minister of Health
Mihaela Lashova - Ministry of Regional Development and Urban
Planning
Hristo Aleksiev - Ministry of Information Technology and
Communications
Ivailo Kozhuharov - Minister of Tourism
Plamen Abrovski - Minister of Agriculture
Teodora Genchovska - Minister of Defence
Lilia Ivanova - Minister of Labour and Social Policy
Stanislava Armutlieva - Minister of Culture
Peter Iliev - Minister of Justice
Radostin Vasilev - Minister of Sport
Antonia Valentinova - Minister without portfolio responsible for
 Roma Affairs

Trifonov said that the word "coalition" has become "a dirty
word" in recent years. He reiterated his party's stance that
TISP will not enter into coalitions with GERB, the Bulgarian
Socialist Party or the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

Trifonov said that the cabinet proposed by TISP is made up by
experts, "everyone in their area", with concrete priorities
before them, with the shortest possible deadlines.

He outlined the following priorities of TISP's future
government, as he presented them in the TV broadcast: building
the necessary number of kindergartens, building a brand new
children's hospital, purchasing helicopters for emergency
medical aid and for rescue operations, awarding concessions and
the construction "of all remaining [unfinished] motorways,"
purchasing of up to one million tablets or laptops for all
school children and teachers and providing the relevant
software, privatizing the Bulgarian Development Bank, "sharp
improvement of the transparency of public procurement
procedures," swift streamlining of the public administration,
changing the election system with the introduction of majority
voting, electronic voting, and reducing the state subsidy of
political parties represented in Parliament to one leva.

Other priorities are Bulgaria's application for membership in
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
 and in the border-free Schengen Area. "Then again, there is
Bulgaria's application for membership in the European Space
Agency, as Bulgaria is the only one that is not a member," the
TISP leader noted.
  
"We shall do everything we can to send a man and a woman to
become the first Bulgarian astronauts in NASA. And we will do
everything possible for a North American astronaut to join them,
 so that we don't keep our heads down with guilt, but start
looking up at the stars," Trifonov added. 
  
"Dear compatriots, it is time for something else. It is time for
 support in return for ideas, not in return for positions, and
it is time for everything to happen before your eyes," Trifonov
pointed out.
   
"In recent years, Parliament was crushed, marginalized and
humbled. Bulgaria was a prime minister's republic that was
governed from an SUV and the money, belonging to all of us, was
thrown around from the SUV without any control by the National
Assembly. Now Parliament can get its dignity back," Trifonov
said.
   
"I am sure that the listed priorities cannot be the priorities
of a single political party or the priorities of just sixty MPs.
 I am confident and I know that these are the priorities of the
majority of Bulgarians, if not all Bulgarians, but we have yet
to see whether they will be the priorities of the majority of
MPs," the TISP leader added.
 
Trifonov also said they would expect President Radev to hand
TISP the government-forming mandate, ending his statement with
the words "there will be no mercy for those who have broken or
are breaking the law".

According to preliminary results based on 95.22 per cent of
tally sheets, the GERB-UDF coalition won 23.91 per cent in the
July 11 elections, TISP won 23.66 per cent of the vote, the
Bulgarian Socialist Party got 13.63 per cent, Democratic
Bulgaria - 12.55 per cent, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms
- 10.59 per cent, and Rise Up! Thugs Out! - 5.04 per cent.

***

Trifonov also said that TISP proposed to three ministers in the
incumbent caretaker cabinet to be appointed in the new one, but
they declined. The three were Kiril Petkov, incumbent caretaker
Economy Minister, Assen Vassilev, caretaker Finance Minister,
and caretaker Education and Science Minister Nikolai Denkov.

The three ministers issued a joint statement later in the day,
circulated by the Education and Science Ministry, in which they
 say that they are declining TISP's proposal over significant
differences concerning financial policy. In the statement they
say the following: "The strategy for the development of the
economy and education is directly tied with the vision
concerning the priorities of the State's finances. We talked
with TISP at their invitation. It transpired during the
discussions that TISP and the caretaker cabinet's economic team
have significant differences in their visions about financial
policy and the main tasks in the next period. In addition to
that, TISP offered incumbent caretaker Finance Minister Assen
Vassilev a ministerial position in another ministry. That is why
 the three of us decided that it would be better that the team
working in the future government shares the [future] prime
minister's vision and that of the State's financial policy
mandate holder. We thank TISP for their proposals and wish the
future government success!" RY/ZH, BR, MY