Sofia, August 18 (BTA) - On Wednesday, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev held consultations with the three smaller parliamentary groups before handing a second cabinet-forming mandate, which is very likely to be followed immediately by a third one. At all meetings during the day: with Democratic Bulgaria, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and Rise Up BG! Here We Come!, the head of State reiterated the importance of having a Parliament-elected government to steer the country through the multiple looming crises.

Now that the largest parliamentary group, There Is Such a People (TISP), have unsuccessfully completed their mandate and the second largest parliamentary group, GERB-UDF, have said that they will immediately decline the second mandate (for the giving of which there are no set time limits), the President will have to offer a third and last mandate to a smaller parliamentary group of his choice within a week thereafter.

It transpired from the first round of the President's consultations on Tuesday (with TISP, GERB-UDF and BSP for Bulgaria) that TISP are unwilling to support a minority cabinet that may be formed on the third mandate, that GERB will not try to form a cabinet on their second mandate, and that BSP for Bulgaria are willing to form a cabinet if given the third mandate or, if not, to consider supporting a cabinet proposed by another party.

Democratic Bulgaria

Democratic Bulgaria said they were willing to see an "emergency aid" government being formed but noted that this will very much depend on the readiness of There Is Such a People (TISP) to back the idea, considering the allocation of seats in the legislature.

TISP has 65 MPs in the 240-member legislature, GERB-UDF 63, BSP for Bulgaria 36, Democratic Bulgaria 34, the MRF 29, and Rise Up! 13. To be elected, a proposed cabinet must be supported by more than half of the MPs present.

Emerging from the meeting, Democratic Bulgaria Floor Leader Hristo Ivanov said that his parliamentary group cannot back a cabinet proposed on a mandate given to BSP for Bulgaria. "It is important that the four parties in this Parliament, excluding GERB and the MRF, learn their lesson and be able to form, at least for a short while, a cabinet to provide the 'emergency aid' this country needs as it faces all the challenges. Everybody should realize their responsibility to try, on the third mandate, to mend the flaws in the way the first mandate was handled and put together a cabinet that will steer the country at least through the winter months, without having another snap election," he commented.

"With this intricate parliamentary architecture without a dominant party, an attitude of equality and readiness for concessions and seeking common ground is essential for forming a cabinet," Ivanov said, adding that this has to be "a government focused on certain tasks that need to be fulfilled over a definite period of time."

Movement for Rights and Freedoms

At the start of the meeting with the MRF, the President scolded the party's leader Mustafa Karadayi for walking out of a Consultative Council on National Security held on Monday to discuss the looming COVID and migration crises and focussing instead on a controversy over the nationality of caretaker Economy Minister Kiril Petkov. Radev also recalled a controversial remark by Karadayi during a visit to Turkey in early June, where he reportedly described Bulgaria as his "motherland" and Turkey as his "ancestral motherland". Karadayi replied that he left the National Security Council meeting because the President put the budget revision on top of the agenda while this topic was not supposed to be discussed at all. MRF Deputy Floor Leader Yordan Tsonev joined in the exchange, and then all of it was about Petkov's citizenship and how serious the matter was.

Approached for comment after the end of the meeting, Karadayi said that "neither the social, nor the economic, nor the financial, nor the political crisis can be solved by anti-MRF rhetoric. Moreover, nobody can conceal their political helplessness by anti-MRF rhetoric and hatred." "Mr Radev is probably a bit nervous, which is understandable, considering the political situation, or maybe the lesson of campaigning for elections on an anti-MRF rhetoric has yet to be learnt after 30 years of democracy in Bulgaria," the MRF leader pointed out.

He told reporters that during the consultations his parliamentary group had argued in favour of a regular cabinet because, as he put it, the caretaker Cabinet "is making quite a few omissions and violations". "We cannot possibly give unsolicited support," Karadayi said, adding that they will wait and see what the dialogue, compromises and discussions between the parties in Parliament will produce.

Rise Up BG! Here We Come!

After her parliamentary group's consultations with the President, Rise Up BG! Here We Come! Floor Leader Maya Manolova said that they will spare no effort for the successful fulfilment of the third cabinet-forming mandate, regardless of the political force to which it goes. "We will be insisting on publicity and transparency, on a targeted mandate with a clear timeline, for a cabinet including caretaker ministers and excluding party appointees. Ordinary citizens should not pay the price of political irresponsibility and political obstinacy," Manolova argued.

"If we heed the voice of the people who want a stable and honourable government on the basis of the caretaker cabinet members, we won't be wrong," the Floor leader observed. She is afraid that the migrant pressure, the fourth COVID-19 wave, social tensions spurred by the appreciation of electricity, water and staple foods, will probably escalate into three major crises this coming autumn. "The political forces do not have the right to be politically careless and stubborn, considering the problems facing this country and its citizens," Manolova said. LN/LG