The ferment against the D&G government in GERB-SDS and PPDB continues
GERB asked for more ministers, Academician Nikolay Denkov admitted
Serious external pressure
On the third day, the talks between the representatives of the two largest parliamentary groups gave enough grounds to believe that “America for Bulgaria” is seriously involved in the formation of the cabinet, experts with a careful look at the political crisis in our country commented to Trud news. They pointed out that several of the ministers, including Academician Nikolay Denkov, are directly connected to the foundation that sponsored their projects.
It was recalled that the friendship of Nikolay Denkov and Kiril Petkov was strengthened through the “Center for Applied Research and Innovation” foundation established in 2018, whose main partners are the “America for Bulgaria” foundation and Sofia University. The Faculty of Biology of Sofia University provides a building free of charge, and “America for Bulgaria” donates BGN 300,000.
As European Commissioner, Maria Gabriel could often be seen as an active participant in NGO events, including American ones in the field of education, culture and technology.
As recently as a week ago, international observers pointed to Gabriel as being closely linked to the Open Society Foundation of billionaire George Soros. She is truly progressive by conviction and can be persuaded to go against her party line, especially on social and gender equality issues; insists on speaking in French whenever possible,” said an Open Society document prepared in 2014 and published on the DCLeaks website in 2018. , is 226, making his informal group the largest in the European Parliament out of a total of 751 MEPs.
The ferment against the government D&G (Dolce and Gabbana, as the rotation of prime ministers jokingly became known) in the two parliamentary groups GERB-SDS and PPDB was evident on the sidelines of the parliament on the first plenary day. Elected officials were constantly nervous between the plenary hall and the parliamentary groups and did not hide that voters lost confidence in them because of the power alliance. On social networks, criticism from PPDB and GERB sympathizers is more than fierce towards the MPs from both groups, and any attempt to quell the tension or present a defensive thesis about the need for a D&G cabinet ends in failure.
Yesterday, deputies from GERB-SDS reminded “Trud news” that “America for Bulgaria” is also the main donor of the Anti-Corruption Fund, in which the candidate for interior minister Andrey Yankulov works, known in legal circles as “a fighter against Geshev”. He is leaving the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office (SGP), a day after Rumen Radev signed the decree appointing Ivan Geshev as chief prosecutor, announcing that he was resigning “with mixed feelings of sadness and relief.” In 2014, Yankulov was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs in the caretaker government of Georgi Bliznashki. In the second Cabinet of Boyko Borisov, he held the position of Deputy Minister of Justice, when Hristo Ivanov was at the head of the institution.
In good partnership with “America for Bulgaria” is also the LocalFood.bg foundation of Gergana Kabaivanova, who was launched as Minister of Tourism, and was a candidate-deputy from DB.
In the meantime, it was understood that the leadership of GERB is insisting on replacing some of the nominated ministers from PPDB, among them are the candidate for interior minister Andrey Yankulov, as well as the contender for military minister Todor Tagarev.
As early as Thursday morning, there was talk in the parliament that people proposed by GERB have claims to change the controversial names. The news was confirmed by Nikolay Denkov, who refused to specify how many casts in the list GERB is insisting on. “There is a desire on the part of GERB to include more ministers in the project cabinet with the second mandate, but we have certain rules,” Denkov commented to reporters.
The PP scheduled an urgent National Council for last night at 6:30 p.m., but preliminary polls by “Trud news” showed that they have no intention of complying with GERB’s demands. On the sidelines of the parliament, it is vigorously argued that there is serious external pressure for the formation of a government with the second mandate.
Non-governmental organizations do not want nominees to head tourism and ecology
Six ministers in question
Six ministers from the draft cabinet of Nikolay Denkov, presented on May 2, are in question for various reasons. Andrey Yankulov, nominated for the Minister of Internal Affairs, Julian Voinov, proposed for the Minister of the Economy, as well as the future Minister of Labor and Social Policy Ivan Krastev, Hristo Daskalov of Agriculture, Gergana Kabaivanova of Tourism and Julian Popov of Ecology are undesirable.
Yankulov is unwanted by GERB for many reasons – because of his statements, because of conducted prosecutorial inspections, as well as because of monitored sensitive cases by the Anti-Corruption Fund. GERB has already objected to the nomination of Ivan Krastev, recalling that he is a member of the BSP and posted on Facebook his photos of the “Immortal Regiment” procession in 2019.
Surprisingly, sentiments also appeared against one of the blades of the PP – Hristo Daskalov, who during the “Petkov” cabinet led the battle of his life against the private laboratory of Captain Andreevo as head of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency. For the position of Minister of Economy, it turned out that they have claims from DSB, who have certainly found a person for the position.
Unwanted by non-governmental organizations are Gergana Kabaivanova and Julian Popov.
Maria Gabriel’s husband and Kiril Petkov’s father helped with the negotiations
The Denkov-Gabriel rotation was arranged at Aleksey Petrov’s restaurant
“Delvite” restaurant, where the rotation of the prime ministers was agreed upon, according to a participant in the government negotiations.
The rotation of the prime ministerial candidates Academician Nikolay Denkov and Maria Gabriel was agreed on at a discreet dinner on Saturday evening in a capital restaurant connected to terrorism expert Alexey Petrov, participants in the government negotiations between GERB and PPDB told “Trud news” yesterday .
We asked Alexey Petrov for a comment, but his office replied that he was outside the capital. They asked what issue we were looking for and later assured us that on Monday Mr. Petrov would give us detailed answers to the questions about the conversation at the “Delvite” restaurant.
In the late afternoon on Saturday, at the GERB headquarters, it was still not clear how to achieve a majority in the plenary hall, since the GERB-SDS, DPS and ITN cabinet had the votes of 116 deputies out of the required 121. a decision followed to continue the talks on Sunday, and hours later the leader of GERB Boyko Borisov, the nominee for prime minister Maria Gabriel, her husband Francois, Kiril Petkov and his father Petko Petkov met in the restaurant “Delvite”.
Kiril Petkov’s father, Petko Petkov
Maria Gabriel’s husband, François Gabriel
The behind-the-scenes information was that Kiril Petkov’s father has been close to Alexey Petrov for years through sports and karate training. New telephone conversations followed with the co-chairmen of the formations in the PPDB and on Sunday morning in the office of the Speaker of the Parliament Rosen Zhelyazkov there was another meeting – already with the participation of Academician Nikolay Denkov and Hristo Ivanov, but without Kiril Petkov’s father and Maria’s husband Gabriel.
The leader of GERB emphasized again that it is important to have a government and Petkov proposed the rotation of the prime ministers. It has been decided that Asen Vassilev will be the Minister of Finance.
Hristo Ivanov made consultations with his colleagues and the DB decided not to send ministers to the cabinet, but set a condition for a judicial reform to be carried out. This is how it came to a conversation between the DB and the DPS about the search for a constitutional majority between Hristo Ivanov and Mustafa Karadai, which Borisov announced to his deputies.
In the late afternoon on Sunday, Kiril Petkov convened the National Council of the PP and at it the MPs of the PP found out that they will vote for the government of Nikolay Denkov, but with slight adjustments, in which the deputy prime minister will initially be Maria Gabriel, and after 9 months she will be the prime minister . Strong reactions followed and the decision had to be voted on three times, with different wording of the question, to reach the 50 plus 1 vote.
Members of the National Assembly of the PP are already considering a proposal to change the statute, whereby the simple majority of their party forum does not apply to “particularly important decisions”. And some deputies of Kiril Petkov suspected that Tatiana Sultanova, the leader of the meeting of the National Council of the PP, agitated the attendees to make a decision on the rotating prime ministers, as she has many years of experience in leadership positions in the Ministry of Environment and Water.
The intervention of the names of Kiril Petkov’s father and Maria Gabriel’s husband in the negotiations was also a shock among PP MPs. When asked what is Francois Gabriel’s role in the negotiations and what is he doing now, Kiril Petkov told PP deputies that “Francois is a prominent member of the EPP.” As is known, François Gabriel was for many years a political adviser to the president of the EPP until 2019, Joseph Dole.
