Borissov proposes government to save EU money promised to Bulgaria

4 months ago 23

GERB, the party of former prime minister Boyko Borissov which won Bulgaria’s recent elections, proposed a government on Monday whose main task will be to rescue the €12 billion promised to Bulgaria under the EU Recovery Fund and the EU budget.

Borissov plans for GERB to govern with a minority government. The party has 68 MPs, and at least 121 are needed to form a political majority.

The vote to form a government will take place on Thursday at the earliest, and it will not be clear until the last minute whether Borissov will be able to muster the necessary support.

“If the government passes with a trick and there is no clear political majority to implement our program, then it will have a very short life,” Borissov said on Monday after President Rumen Radev handed GERB a mandate to form a cabinet.

Borissov outlined the urgent tasks that would face a new government, such as salvaging the €5 billion in EU funds under the Recovery Plan and speeding up the absorption of the remaining EU funds. GERB promises to continue to push for Bulgaria’s accession to the eurozone in 2025.

“Bulgaria’s accession to the euro area is a political issue, and if there is a government, we think there is a chance it will be accepted. Then we can safely go to elections again”, Borissov said.

Prime Minister-designate Rosen Zhelyazkov said that if elected, the GERB government would work on the main tasks facing the country, including ensuring financial stability.

“We will not resign in the winter, but we promise that we will resign after we have completed the tasks,” Zhelyazkov said.

Bulgaria has been in a spiral of political crisis for more than three years, and the highly fragmented parliament risks facing fresh elections as early as this autumn, which would be the seventh since 2021.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)