Rosen Zhelyazkov was removed from the post of chairman, GERB warned PP-DB of consequences

After more than two hours of debates, in which pre-election topics strongly invaded, Rosen Zhelyazkov was removed from the post of chairman in the National Assembly with 129 votes “for” and 103 deputies voting against.

His early release was supported by PP-DB, Vazrazhdane, BSP and ITN. GERB and DPS stood behind Zhelyazkov.

Zhelyazkov’s deputy from GERB, the deputy chairwoman of the National Assembly Rositsa Kirova, could not hold back her emotions and after his speech, in which he thanked everyone, cried. It took a few seconds for him to control his voice and put his removal to a vote.

The Parliament held the debates and voting at the request of 80 people’s representatives from PP-DB and BSP.

“Vazrazhdane” also demanded his release yesterday. The request for the release of the speaker of the parliament will be voted on just one day before the parliament is dissolved in a pre-election vacation for the “2 in 1” vote.

The deputies from GERB and DPS left the plenary hall in protest at the moment when the discussion on the removal of the parliamentary speaker began.

On behalf of the petitioners, Miroslav Ivanov from PP-DB highlighted the reasons for the request that Zhelyazkov be removed from office.

Cases of violation of the parliamentary rules were cited as arguments, including the introduction of an extraordinary point for the release of the head of the NHIF, even though he had renounced the submitted resignation, as well as Jhelyazkov’s reluctance only a day earlier for the parliament to honor the victims of the Armenian genocide with a moment of silence genocide.

“The specific reasons for the proposal for a decision are: violation in the procedure for early termination of the mandate of the manager of the National Health Insurance Fund – Stanimir Mihailov; systematic abuse of the right under Article 48, paragraph 5 of the Civil Procedure Code; violations in the conduct of parliamentary control under Article 105 of the Civil Code”, said the former chairman of the National Assembly.

Toma Bikov stated that in GERB they accept this “as blowing up the possibility of dialogue in the short and medium term”. His warning of negative consequences was addressed to PP-DB.

Bykov found the stated reasons to be frivolous and summarized the position of GERB, indicating that they will not participate in the debate.

“I expected to hear more serious reasons for this request, because it is a political act, and not to hear a lexicon of dates,” he said, referring to the listing of the days in which Zhelyazkov violated parliamentary rules.

“The motives have nothing to do with the real motives for the request for this resignation. Rosen Zhelyazkov was also elected with your votes, of the colleagues from the PP-DB,” said Bykov. He stated that the PP-DB do not wish to talk “with the last party that is still talking to them”.

According to him, PP-DB do not realize the situation they are in and that it requires them not to make sudden movements, because any sudden movement will “hurt” them more. Bikov pointed out that perhaps their motivation is to put another topic “in circulation” in the media space or a tactical approach regarding the election campaign.

“The result of today’s debate will not be good. This is the reason why our PG will not participate in this debate. We do not participate in meaningless exercises.” said Bykov and recalled the result of the failed assembly. He recommended to PP-DB to at least learn from empirical experience, because the hoe has already stepped in several times. “You could have at least educated yourself in the political game. I wish you success and I hope that the results of what you are doing will not surprise you as much as you always pretend to be surprised and surprised,” he told PP-DB.

Kiril Petkov continued Bykov’s thought about the serious consequences, but connected them to the unimplemented reforms due to the dissolution of the non-coalition. “The Bulgarian people will pay the big price for their absence, he said. No one in the state has absolute power and if they thought so, they are wrong,” Petkov stated. And he warned that the consequences will be seen in less than 40 days.

On behalf of ITN, Stanislav Balabanov announced that his party will support the removal of Zhelyazkov because he is an opposition. He accused the PP-DB of hypocrisy after they elected Rosen Zhelyazkov as rotating chairman, and now they want to remove him.

“We will vote correctly, conscientiously, consciously and responsibly. We will vote for Zhelyazkov’s resignation, because we are the opposition, not you. This parliament begins as a farce and ends as a farce. Our PG will leave the hall and we will return for the vote “, said the MP from ITN.

The DPS appealed for an end to the shameful debates in order to save the dignity of the National Assembly and its chairman. Earlier, GERB called PP-DB “poodles and moths in Bulgarian politics”, smugglers who were advised by Georg Georgiev to look in the mirror.

“Mr. Georgiev’s story refers to GERB and DPS. You believe so much in lies,” Nikolay Denkov retorted.

“Those of you who climbed the railing of the Change today, I had higher expectations for you. Know that you will fall from there,” the GERB deputy warned.

The BSP did not keep silent and expressed their astonishment at the “goonsuratlak” of the GERB, which they ruled together with the PP-DB for 10 months. “This is a Gonsurat because you were the ones who embraced them and gave them the opportunity to dismantle the country. This happened thanks to this embrace,” reminded Borislav Gutsanov.

Don’t involve the BSP in your muddy Pehlivan fights with the PP-DB, said Kornelia Ninova, pointing out that she was the only deputy who refused the post of Speaker of the Parliament.

“This offer was made by Borisov to me since 2018, and I refused because I think that this model is the greatest evil. Colleagues from GERB, there were many differences between your government and now. With us, it was very clear who for which he is responsible. Your mistake now is that for 9 months you cannot understand which minister belongs to whom. We knew that,” Ninova replied.

Yordan Tsonev called for a point in the debates, and the hall voted on the edge of the rules.

“Rosen Zhelyazkov is one of the most worthy Speakers of the Bulgarian Parliament in our recent history. An erudite, outstanding jurist, a man with a very broad general culture, a man who tolerated all the things we allowed ourselves to say here to each other and about him. Let’s save it this time because Rosen doesn’t deserve it and all Bulgarian citizens will be watching us. Let’s save this for the Bulgarian people and for Mr. Zhelyazkov,” urged Yordan Tsonev.

Before him, Atanas Atanasov, although he is from the group that wants the overthrow of Zhelyazkov, admitted to the hall that he was very impressed by the erudition of the chairman of the National Assembly, who spoke in the Pope’s native language – Spanish, during their visit to The Vatican.

On behalf of “Vazrazhdane”, the leader of the party Kostadin Kostadinov pointed out that the reason for the resignation of one chairman of the National Assembly was systematic violations of the rules. He pointed out that among Zhelyazkov’s “sins”, the most important was not allowing the vote of no confidence in the official cabinet as constitutionally inadmissible, and not the case with the manager of the NHSOC, which is an argument of PP-DB. “Yesterday, the PP-DB refused to sign our request”, revealed Kostadinov, adding that they then surprisingly found the support of the BSP with one argument – “you took the manager of the NHSOC from us, there is no way we can distribute the money for health care”.

“Everything else is camouflage,” he summarized and, like ITN, exposed PP-DB and BSP in hypocrisy, after in the morning they supported the failure of the quorum in aid of GERB and DPS. “This is an ugly family scandal, GERB and PP-DB secretly rule together”, he noted. And he demanded that this hypocrisy and “this huge lie” be put an end to.

Iskren Mitev replied that the resignation was requested to teach a lesson and to know that no one has sole power.

A new Speaker of the Parliament will not be elected, as tomorrow is the last session of the 49th National Assembly. According to the parliamentary rules, until a new election of the speaker is held, the parliament is chaired by the deputy speaker nominated by the largest party or coalition represented in the parliament. In this case, it is Rositsa Kirova from GERB-SDS, who has only a few hours to lead the parliament.