Outgoing PM Denkov: This is GERB's cabinet, it was not endorsed by CC-DB

Outgoing Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov (Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria) said that the government lineup just proposed by GERB's Prime Minister-designate Mariya Gabriel, has not been endorsed by his party. "This is GERB-UDF's Cabinet. It is not a Cabinet that has been coordinated with Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria," said Denkov on his way into a meeting of his parliamentary group.

That is a new twist in a plot that appeared to culminate in the handing of the government lineup proposal by Gabriel to President Rumen Radev on Tuesday after ten days of hard talks between GERB-UDF and Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) on the future of the government and a Cabinet rotation that was planned nine months ago when the two coalitions agreed to power sharing.

DB co-leader Atanas Atanassov added, "Let us meet and discuss the situation because we were taken by surprise by Mariya Gabriel's move. There is no agreement [between GERB-UDF and CC-DB] on what Gabriel is doing."

Remarks by Mariya Gabriel for the press on her way out of the President's Office shed some more light on what happened at the talks between GERB-UDF and CC-DB. She said that she signed a governance agreement with CC-DB two days ago. Raya Nazaryan of GERB's negotiating team clarified that the document was approved by DB co-leader Hristo Ivanov at 6pm on Monday but the other CC-DB co-leaders - Atanas Atanassov of DB and Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev of CC - refused to sign it.

Gabriel also said that during the negotiations they came to a text for an agreement where GERB-UDF and CC-DB had no differences regarding the judicial reform, the regulators and counter-corruption efforts.