In the middle of November 2017 the Bulgarian Socialist Party announced that it would continue to participate in Parliamentary debates only if they were linked with the resignation of the former National Assembly President Dimitar Glavchev, the 2018 state budget and the no-confidence vote against the current coalition cabinet. Dimitar Glavchev has already resigned and does not serve anymore as President of the 44^th National Assembly, the state budget for 2018 has already been adopted at Parliament and now is the turn of the first no-confidence vote against Borissov 3 cabinet.

None of the no-confidence votes initiated in Previous National Assemblies turned successful and this political maneuver is used to reach a stronger public response of the criticism towards the government, rather than change the cabinet itself. The forthcoming no-confidence vote will be no exception. What makes it different from the previous no-confidence votes at the Bulgarian National Assembly is the fact that it is initiated during the first rotating Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The socialists contend that their attitude towards the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU will be constructive, but at the same time they will not keep silence during that period.

The no-confidence vote which is expected to be initiated by the socialist party will be mainly on corruption. In this respect BSP talked about inadmissible ties of politicians from the ruling party with public procurement orders, but all allegations were denied by the ruling parties.

Initially, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms intended to submit together the motion of no-confidence, but this intention was thwarted by profound differences between the assessments of the two political formations about the current political situation in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Socialist Party contends that there is an alternative to the government of GERB party, but at the end of 2017 the Movement for Rights and Freedoms came to the conclusion that currently no political party was able to provide alternative to the government and early elections would bring instability in this country. MRF further announced that they would vote against the cabinet at the forthcoming voting, but they are to provide their own arguments in support of their decision.

The no-confidence vote initiated by the Bulgarian Socialist Party comes in a moment when the socialist party itself has been shaken by internal contradictions related to their attitude towards the so-called Istanbul Convention. The socialists were supporting until recently the ratification of this convention, but following sharp disputes in public they changed their position and their new position is not shared by the Party of European Socialists and its President and former leader of BSP Sergei Stanishev. On its congress in October last year the socialist party nominated Stanishev again for President of the Party of European Socialists, but according to the internal opposition in BSP his chances to become again President of PES have rapidly declined after the unexpected change in the attitude of BSP towards the Istanbul Convention. That is why some political experts believe that the current leadership of the Bulgarian Socialist Party aims at consolidating its positions during the forthcoming debate on the no-confidence vote against the cabinet. The current balance of power at the Bulgarian National Assembly is in favor of the ruling coalition and the forthcoming no-confidence vote is likely to fail.

A sociological survey of the Center for Analyses and Marketing made in the middle of December last year shows that if early elections were held today Volya party will not be able to cross the 4% barrier. The so-called reformists from the rightist political space would not enter the Parliament again and only four political formations will be represented in a new National Assembly-GERB, BSP, MRF and the United Patriots. GERB would receive the support of 25.9% of the Bulgarian voters, and BSP would be backed by 22.4% of the citizens. The Movement for Rights and Freedoms would place third with 5.1% support and the United Patriots would be supported by 4.4% of the Bulgarian nationals.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov