Rosen Zhelyazkov

Rosen Zhelyazkov, the Speaker of Bulgaria's National Assembly, expressed confidence that the parliamentary majority would surpass President Rumen Radev's veto regarding the provision of armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.

The first parliamentary session following the local elections was abruptly halted due to a lack of quorum. Notably, this setback wasn't confined to GERB members; deputies from the DPS party also refrained from entering the chamber.

After the vacation, the Bulgarian National Assembly began work in the plenary hall renovated three years ago in the building of the former Communist Party House on "Knyaz Alexander I" Square. The meeting started at 9:00 a.m. with the anthems of Bulgaria and the EU.

With 103 votes "for", the National Assembly terminated the powers of the People's Representative from GERB Vezhdi Rashidov. Only "Vazrazhdane" voted three "against" and 27 "abstained".

The Speaker of the Parliament, Rosen Zhelyazkov, expressed his thanks and best wishes to Rashidov:

The Bulgarian Parliament finally approved the 2023 Budget in a meeting that started at 9 a.m. yesterday and lasted almost 21 hours.

The financial framework is calculated at a deficit of three percent - on an accrual basis, with the preservation of a large part of the originally proposed capital program.

An initiative committee, which started a petition to call a referendum against "gender ideology" and was supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), managed to collect a little over 208,000 signatures for the three-month period it had (it expired on July 26).

After three hours of debate and with 186 votes "for" and 32 "against", the parliament created a temporary commission to decide whether to remove the immunity of the people's representatives Boyko Borissov and Daniel Alexandrov from GERB-SDS, Kiril Petkov from "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB) and Dimitar Avramov from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS).

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel stated that GERB leader Boyko Borissov will not change his mind and will not give up his immunity until the judicial reform is implemented.

Will there be a regular government? GERB-SDS have 69 deputies, and "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" - 63, or 132 in total. Thus, the two largest coalitions secure a majority according to their previously declared intentions.

The head of state Rumen Radev has issued a decree for the voting of the proposed WCC-DB cabinet, and the speaker of the National Assembly has scheduled an extraordinary meeting for tomorrow.