GERB MP Toma Bykov said he did not see the “Radev” cabinet having a clear goal or direction. “I do not see the ‘Radev’ cabinet having any goal,” he said on BNT. According to him, the government must show not only what it will change or repeal, but also what it will build.
Bykov pointed out that GERB has been in opposition since April and initially gave the government 100 days of tolerance. According to him, after the fifth month in office, it is normal for the opposition to demand more from the ministers. He said that the cabinet had not taken sufficient action and used a sharp expression to describe its work: “We only saw the ministers parading their suits.”
Criticism of the Budget and the Lack of Reforms
The MP described the budget deficit as a serious problem, but said that the refusal to carry out structural reforms was more serious. According to him, budget policy had been burdened with expenses because of pre-election bidding wars, without any unpopular changes being implemented.
Bykov said that the cabinet has 131 MPs and executive power, but despite this, in his assessment, not a single significant law had been adopted over the past five or six months. He pointed out that citizens, rather than the parliamentary opposition, would be the more serious challenge facing the government.
Warning About Electricity Bills
Toma Bykov warned that businesses could receive electricity bills twice as high next week. He said that GERB had proposed using BGN 400 million from the Electricity System Security Fund, which, according to him, would not burden the state budget.
According to him, it is precisely the lack of anti-inflation measures, rather than the euro, that will be the reason for the increase in the prices of energy, electricity and food. Bykov said that the government could not expect constant approval: “A prime minister cannot expect” everyone to applaud him.
The Files Commission and the Bulgarian Language
Bykov described the closure of the Files Commission as the easiest, but in his view incorrect, option. He proposed that the archives of State Security and the Bulgarian Communist Party be merged and studied by an institute for national memory. According to him, an institute for the study of political violence in Bulgaria is also needed.
On the subject of the bill on the Bulgarian language, the MP said that language is alive and changes. According to him, the greater problem is illiteracy, not a threat to the Cyrillic alphabet.
At the end of the conversation, Bykov paid tribute to the memory of Vezhdi Rashidov, with whom he had worked for seven years on the parliamentary culture committee. Rashidov had died the previous day after suffering a heart attack.
Sources: 24chasa.bg