Two biggest parties agree to have Rossen Zhelyazkov of GERB-UDF as 49th National Assembly Chair

GERB-UDF and Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) have agreed to have Rossen Zhelyazkov of GERB-UDF elected to be Chair of the 49th National Assembly, GERB-UDF's Desislava Atanasova reported on Tuesday.

Nikolay Denkov of CC-DB said that plans are to have an elected National Assembly Chair by Wednesday.

The two coalitions have also agreed on a common legislative agenda. Denkov said that the specified list of bills will be proposed as the agenda of this session of parliament. "If the National Assembly starts working successfully, in three months there will be a possibility to rotate the chair of the parliament so that he and the chair of the Legal Affairs Committee can work in sync and get the most important bills passed," he said.

Atanasova elaborated that the two coalitions have agreed on the possibility of rotation of National Assembly and Legal Affairs Committee chairs, provided that the Parliament works for more than three months, because this is the term specified for the rotating presidency. She specified that CC-DB were tasked with nominating a Chair of the parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs.

Atanasova recognized CC-DB's commitments to their national bodies regarding the formation of a government and called for a continued constructive dialogue that should lead to the formation of a regular government.

Asked whether this was the beginning of preparations for a joint government, Denkov said that GERB-UDF and CC-DB had only discussed the legislative agenda. He added: "Forming a government is a matter of conversation between party leaders rather than in a working group on legislation". He stressed that forming a cabinet is the responsibility of the mandate holder, who has to decide how to approach the task.

Denkov reiterated that CC and DB had decided not to support a first-term government, and this decision was unlikely to be changed. He said: "The question is whether there is another workable structure. I think it is too early to discuss this topic today".

Atanasova reassured the briefing that GERB-UDF will make every effort to have a regular government. She said that GERB-UDF continues to resist the notion of supporting a state budget in the absence of a functioning cabinet. "We are convinced that there should be a regular government that defends its own budget and implements through it the policies it finds agreement on in some future government," she said.

The priority bills for the two coalitions are the bills regarding the justice reform, the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the eurozone and Schengen, the protection from domestic violence, which can be jointly submitted between GERB-UDF and CC-DB. Both political entities wished first to make these known to the other parliamentary groups and seek agreement.

Atanasova said that everyone's efforts will be focused on engaging other parliamentary groups in order to find a constitutional majority. She specified: "We are aware that a thorough and serious justice reform could not happen without such a majority".

Negotiations between the two formations started on April 13 and continued throughout Monday and Tuesday.