President holds consultations with There Is Such a People party

President Rumen Radev held consultations with representatives of the fifth parliamentary force There Is Such a People (TISP) on Friday. Radev asked them what is their party's degree of belonging to the "ideological alliance - GERB-UDF and Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB)". He said that how TISP fits into the said configuration is the important question for the efforts to form a government.

TISP floor leader Toshko Yordanov said that it is politically responsible to have a cabinet in this difficult situation because at least it can try to deal with the problems the country is facing.

As for a possible alliance between CC-DB and GERB-UDF, Yordanov said that his party is in opposition to this configuration. 

Yordanov commented that his party might not be able to reveal other parliamentary parties' mistakes but will strive to make them "public enough" so that Bulgarian citizens are aware there is political collusion. He noted that such collusion is most often related to money, judging by his party's direct observations during previous participation in Parliament . According to him, it is a fact that the bills should be adopted to allow money under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) to enter Bulgaria. It is also a fact that some things set in the NRRP need to be renegotiated, Yordanov added.

Commenting on the state budget, the TISP floor leader said that it is not a good idea to adopt a budget yet, if no regular government is formed and new elections must be held. According to Yordanov, the issue lies in parties' promises for budget expenses, without posing the question where the money would come from. He added that the problem of where the money will come from falls on a caretaker cabinet or possibly on the next regular government. 

According to Yordanov, spending money under the NRRP on social costs is wrong. He said that the social burden can be reduced by increasing the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy and its development. 

TISP MP Filip Stanev said that everyone is basically talking about the same priorities. Enough words, it is time for deeds, he said. According to him, if there is no regular cabinet now, it will be the result of political irresponsibility of the big parties in this parliament.

TISP's meeting with Radev is the last in the series of consultations concerning government formation. Earlier on Friday, the President met with Vazrazhdane (37 MPs), the Movement for Rights  and Freedoms (36 MPs), and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (23 MPs). According to the Constitution, the head of state must hand the first exploratory mandate for forming a government to the largest parliamentary group in parliament - GERB-UDF (69 MPs).

Speaking to journalists after the consultations, Yordanov said that the responsibility and the key for stability lies in the first two political forces - GERB-UDF and CC-DB. 

He noted that if the third government forming mandate is given to TISP, the party is ready to take the responsibility and propose a government. 

Yordanov said that so far TISP has not discussed joint government formation with any party. 

The MP noted that his party and President Radev discussed the pressing issues before Bulgaria and its Parliament. He said that TISP is not in support of all the bills the first two parliamentary forces consider the most important. As an example he provided a bill concerning domestic violence, and said that TISP sees pushing of "gender policies", of which the party is against.