Bulgaria's Opposition Unites to Demand Emergency Parliament Session
Bulgaria's centrist, leftist, and rightist opposition has come together in a rare motion to demand the holding of an emergency Parliament sessions just as the MPs were about to go on break over the upcoming presidential and local elections.
Last week, the ruling center-right party GERB sponsored a decision for giving the MPs time off between October 12 and 21, in order to prevent "the use of the parliamentary floor for election campaign purposes." The decision made with respect to Bulgaria's presidential and local elections scheduled for October 23, 2011, attracted vast criticism by the opposition.
Tuesday afternoon, MPs from the Bulgarian Socialist Party Atanas Merdzhanov and Anton Kutev tabled to the Parliament Chair a demand for an emergency parliamentary sitting supported by 53 signatures of MPs from the BSP, the ethnic Turkish centrist party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms), the rightist Blue Coalition, and independents.
The demand has only on issue on the proposed parliamentary agenda - a "parliamentary control" session in which members of the Cabinet will be asked to answer questions.
A total of 28 questions posed by MPs to the ministers have not been answered, according to the opposition MPs, including questions on the conducting of the Bulgarian presidential elections abroad, and policies regarding the small and medium-sized enterprises.
"What will happen if tomorrow Prime Minister Boyko Borisov decides to adjourn the Parliament for an entire year? The fact that you have a majority in a parliamentary republic doesn't mean that you can do as you please, especially when you actions affect the Constitution," Socialist MP Kutev declared.
He stressed that the Bulgarian Parliament should be working on the 2012 Budget Act at the moment, and there is no way the holding of elections can be more important than the state budget for next year.
Under the statutes of the Bulgarian National Assembly, Parliament Chair Tsetska Tsacheva has to respond by Thursday when the emergency meeting of the MPs will be held. (Source: Sofia News Agency)