By Ernesto Hernández Lacher
Journalist of the International Newsroom of Prensa Latina
The PSB accepted the assignment from the President of the Nation, Roumen Radev, through his Parliamentary Speaker, Georgi Svilenski, who visited the President accompanied by other leaders of the formation, including its leader, Kornelia Ninova.
We will do everything we can to form a government because the country is asking for calm and security, the spokesman said, quoted by the national press. Svilensk explained that there will be later discussions about who will become prime minister after receiving the mandate from the president.
The PSB hopes to include four parties in a coalition involving Democratic Bulgaria, There is such a people and We will help change outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov.
Former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms and Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) have been excluded from the options for the new governing coalition.
Protests against Borisov’s executive branch in July 2020 hastened his overthrow, sparking the crisis of ungovernability the poorest nation in the European Union is experiencing today. Back then, the protesters accused the leader of the GERB and the prosecutor general Ivan Geshev of serving the interests of the mafia and not the citizens.
But as a backdrop, there were strong political tensions between the executive and the president, who were close to the then socialist opposition, to which was added the populace’s almost total distrust of the state and political system, which they saw as riddled with corruption by the allegations , which concerned Borisov.
This year saw three intervening general elections, on top of the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and nuanced by the rise of the anti-vaccine movement.
THE RISE AND DOWN OF KIRIL PETKOV
After a year of instability, protests and Covid-19, in mid-December the National Assembly (parliament) approved the then-nascent Executive, composed of the four parties mentioned above and led by Kiril Petkov.
The coalition’s 134 MPs voted for their head of government, 104 MPs were against and two did not take part in the referendum.
Among the priorities, the announced zero tolerance for corruption, poverty alleviation, economic growth and the country’s development stood out, indicating a divorce with the management of the outgoing executive branch.
Petkov promised his constituents “absolute transparency about any public currency issued” and the rule of law over immunity, which analysts saw as a clear nod to Borisov.
He urged the population to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and, according to national press reports, described this option as the only way to avoid a curfew for children and adults. The pandemic affected more than 1,189,000 people here and caused the deaths of more than 37,000, according to statistics from health facilities.
To overcome public distrust of healthcare institutions, Petkov chose virology professor Radka Argirova to oversee the vaccination program.
Bulgarian political scientist Antoaneta Hristova at the time believed that the ruler should focus his mandate on finding a solution to the health, economic and social crises, but due to the ideological differences between the four partners, predicted the executive would have a short life, a fact finally confirmed. .
On the other hand, his foreign policy actions were completely aligned with the positions of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the EU, to the point that he turned his back on Russia in the middle of the war in Ukraine and joined this position on Western sanctions against this Eurasian country.
The latest action taken by the Sofia executive against Moscow was the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats on charges of espionage, to which the Kremlin responded with a warning of a possible severing of diplomatic relations.
Bulgaria and the Russian Federation have a long-standing relationship of great importance for the country’s fate, Petkov said at the time, adding: “We respect the Russian people and value our cultural, historical, social and economic ties.”
But those comments didn’t stop Radev’s PSB from withdrawing political support from him just as he was attempting to form a new government after rejecting a motion of no confidence in the National Assembly.
In addition, one of the coalition partners, Exists Such a People, decided in June to withdraw its four ministers from neighboring North Macedonia after accusing Petkov of disregarding public funds and wanting to overturn the Bulgarian veto at the start of EU accession negotiations.
The two countries are at odds over their shared past and Sofia is demanding more guarantees for the rights of ethnic Bulgarians from her counterpart.
After the fall of the Petkov government, the now interim governing coalition only occupies 109 of the 240 seats in the unicameral parliament.
In this scenario, the President of the National Assembly, Nikola Minchev, was dismissed for alleged violations of the Constitution and parliamentary rules of procedure.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party, of which President Roumen Radev is a member, is now in charge of political stability in the south-eastern European nation, a task that seems difficult after more than two years of crisis, demonstrations and distrust in the institutions.
work/to/ehl