GERB leader Borissov: Government formation with CC-DB mandate will not happen

GERB leader Boyko Borissov Thursday told journalists in Parliament that government formation will not happen with the mandate of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB). 

He said that his party has proposed only a prime minister. According to Borissov, CC-DB do not want a government and think that it will happen with the second exploratory mandate (to be given to CC-DB), but Borissov said that GERB is adamant that it will not happen. 

"Instead of apologising, [CC-DB] they went even further," Borissov said. 

Borissov said that CC-DB have another day to reconsider their decision not to back Gabriel's proposed cabinet lineup.

Asked if GERB was ready to take back Mariya Gabriel and propose another prime minister, Borissov said "why should we give up on Mariya Gabriel because one person has insulted her". "A person who thanks to us is finance minister [Assen Vassilev]. Thanks to our support, we defended him for nine months from all of you who attacked him," Borissov added.

On Tuesday at a CC-DB press conference, Vassilev called Gabriel “the beautiful face of Bulgaria mafia”. Vassilev said in an interview on Wednesday that he apologizes to Gabriel the woman but not to the Prime Minister-designate.

Borissov said that his explanation is that "Vassilev has found the perfect time to defect and in a way to unite all those who do not love us". According to Borissov, Vassilev is "extremely smart", and wants to become "the leader of those who do not love GERB". 

Borissov further said that Vassilev is doing "magic tricks" in finance, after which the country has to return money from the state budget under the national recovery and resilience plan. The GERB leader said that namely for those magic tricks his party decided to keep him as finance minister in their cabinet lineup, so that he fixes the mess that he has left in the sector. Borissov said that Vassilev has to "fix this mess because the International Monetary Fund in its report says that taxes should be raised". Borissov also criticized the financial management of the energy sector.