Bulgaria Sets Date for No-Confidence Vote Amid Protests

Protesters gather in support of the government in Sofia, Bulgaria, June 17. Photo by Svetoslav Todorov.

The minority cabinet of mandate holders "We Continue the Change", their closest allies, Democratic Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, will face a motion filed by their former partners "There's Such a People" - who abruptly left the cabinet on June 8 over the alleged lifting of the EU blockade on North Macedonia and fund mismanagement - the former ruling GERB party, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and the pro-Kremlin far-right Revival. 

On Friday, PM and "We Continue the Change" co-leader Kiril Petkov denied wrongdoing and said that "There's Such a People" had tried to keep intact financial schemes of giving state money to private firms with problematic reputations.

"We refused to give a budget of 3.9 billion levs (around two billion euro), part of which, 2.5 billion (around 1.7 billion euro), had to go on covering construction costs; 80 per cent of these companies turned out to be illegal. And when we refused to give these funds, 'There's Such a People' decided that it would be better not to have this government. They hoped to greenlight these grand thefts but that did not happen," Petkov told Capital Weekly. 

The coalition currently relies on 109 MPs of the 121 needed to survive. Parliament has a total of 240 seats, the figure of 109 may rise to 114. But the cabinet will still need seven more votes to survive, which might come from the divided "There's Such a People" party.

On Thursday, Nikola Minchev, of "We Continue the Change", was ousted as Speaker. The growing opposition in parliament axed him with 125 MPs in favour and 114 against. 

Later on Thursday, however, several thousand...