9 votes were not enough for Silvi Kirilov to become the Speaker of the National Assembly in the sixth runoff. The doyen collected 100 votes from "Continuing the Change", "Revival", Alliance for Rights and Freedoms, "There is such a people" and SWORD. 101 were the votes against GERB-SDS, "DPS - New beginning" and one each from PP-DB and BSP. 16 abstained - one from PP-DB and 15 from BSP. A total of 217 deputies voted. What to expect… Political scientist Tatyana Burudzhieva spoke to FAKTI.
- Ms. Burudzhieva, we do not have an elected Speaker of the Parliament for the sixth time. What's next?
- We are going to elections, but with one big “But”, because purely technologically it is not clear how we get out of the situation. Because the president has no one to give a mandate to, because a mandate is given to a parliamentary group, and until the president of the National Assembly is elected, the parliamentary groups cannot be constructed… The only thing that people's representatives should focus on, given the clear sign that they cannot work together and get anything done even in the National Assembly, let alone in the executive branch and in a government, is how we get out of this often a technological case that is not described and not provided for in the Constitution. Not even 35 years ago could anyone have imagined it, and even today it is difficult to imagine how we got ourselves into such a case.
- The fact that “Democratic Bulgaria” removed the quorum, does it already show a clear rift between PP and DB…
- If any prediction can be made for future elections, towards which we are working hard, it is that most likely this time “Democratic Bulgaria” and “We continue the change” will separate into leaves. And so we will really have a new interesting situation.
- BSP voted one “against“ and 15 “abstained”. What are you doing in this…
? - This vote shows that BSP cannot decide what position to take. In this situation, refusing to have positions and voting “abstained“ means that you are simply incapable of working out a political position and making a political decision.
- Do we all live with the feeling that we are “in a broken country“…
- Absolutely, because this situation of not having a regular government for three years creates a very difficult situation for the functioning of the local government as well, it creates a difficult situation for us, the people, because we function in an environment that is absolutely unpredictable. It is logical for the administration in such an environment to guard against any movements, we bow down to let the storm pass. Business cannot do its job either, because it depends in many respects on the control exercised by the administration.
- Did Boyko Borisov realize now that the state is broken, to say that he doesn't want to rule one…
- No one wants to rule a broken country. But if we are positive, we can make a possible solution out of the problem, not just show inaction or denial of responsibility. It's very complicated. It's not the problem, I think, to run a broken country if you have partners. But we are in a double “Paragraph 22“. We have a “Paragraph 22“ regarding partners among politicians – there are none. New and old politicians have a hard time understanding that we have sent them to parliament to do a job and nothing else. That is, they are not there because we have satisfied their desire to achieve something, some post or position, nor are they there because they are somehow likable or unlikable to people. Politics is a place where you are elected to do a job. And because they don't want to understand this, we are in such a situation. We choose them, and their main goal is not to do work, but to make a biography. The second “Paragraph 22“ is that, in fact, we – as voters, we do this thing and wait like in fairy tales for something to happen. We hope that there are some people - no matter how simple you are like Ivancho - who can always become heroes. And then marry a princess who is always waiting for the prince on a white horse. We live in such fabulous expectations. Well, actually, we have a cat, we don't have a hero, we don't even have a princess so that a wedding can take place. While we are in such fabulous expectations, what can we expect to happen to us… In recent years, we absolutely live with the argument that there is no one to vote for and we cannot choose from all the different parties that appear. We don't live in reality and choose those who will work for us. We do not live in a situation of prosperity where we can afford the luxury of choosing some people and they have fun. The bad thing is that the politicians refuse to take their responsibility. We are in such a vicious circle until the next elections.
- Is that where we are going – to new elections…
- That's the most reasonable. I am usually an optimist that anything can happen, they will understand each other, they will be enlightened about what it is about. But from the very first day, when our deputies were sworn in once again, I found that for a large part of the people's representatives - according to the statements they made, the most important thing is to take the oath and start signing on the payroll. I absolutely did not see the understanding that they went there for something else.