Tsetska Tsacheva Appointed Bulgaria's Parliament Speaker

GERB's Tsetska Tsacheva was overwhelmingly approved Parliament Speaker of the 43rd National Assembly.

As Parliament convened for its first session on October 27, Monday, Tsacheva's candidacy, the single proposal of lawmakers, was approved as head of the legislature by 219 MPs and rejected by 12 (all lawmakers of ultra-nationalist Ataka and a single one from another party), with one MP choosing to abstain.

She held the same office between 2009-2013, while her party GERB was leading a minority government.

Minutes before the vote in parliament Angel Naydenov from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Bulgaria's second-largest party, said socialists would also endorse her candidacy.

Earlier conservatives' leader Boyko Borisov had proposed BSP counterpart Mihail Mikov to take up the office for a second time (he presided over Parliament in the previous legislature which was dissolved in August), but Mikov refused.