„Once again, the ruling majority demonstrates arrogance, perhaps caused by a misunderstanding of its own situation. We see how they are trying to take away the floor from the opposition in the most elementary way - something that in the 44th National Assembly led to the resignation of the then Speaker of the National Assembly Dimitar Glavchev.“
This was stated to journalists on the sidelines of the parliament by Kostadin Kostadinov, leader of „Vazrazhdane“.
„Today, the floor was taken away from the chairman of the largest opposition force in the parliament, on the grounds that the time had been exceeded by 23 seconds. And in the presidential council, we measured exactly how many seconds each of us spoke extra. Because of 23 seconds, the work of the National Assembly was delayed by an hour. Who needs this? It's good for us, because we are sabotaging the work of the majority. However, I don't understand their madness.
That's why we called on Kiselova to step down temporarily, because she obviously can't do her job. I asked her from outside how she felt, because she seemed inadequate, she stood on one leg like a stork and told me: “Here, you see, I can stand on one leg“. This is absurd.
We are asking a serious question about demography, the deputy prime minister cannot answer, there is obviously a problem.
It's absurd, I don't know how far we have come. We will vote at 1 p.m. on a vote of no confidence, people will gather outside. What are we showing them?“, he asks.
We recall that the parliamentary control with the participation of ministers today began with a scandal. The occasion was a question from Kostadin Kostadinov from “Vazrazhdane“ to Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov regarding demographic policy.
Zafirov did not give a comprehensive answer, as he paused several times to wait for the remarks and shouts of the “Vazrazhdane“ deputies to finish. In the end, he withdrew from the podium.
Kostadinov was not satisfied and took the floor. He called Zafirov's attitude “sloppy“ and began to list measures that other countries have taken because of the demographic crisis.
However, here he was stopped by Natalia Kiselova, who said that his time had run out. She turned off his microphone without delay.
This was met with disgruntled exclamations from the “Vazrazhdane“ camp.
“Your time is up. No“, she replied to Kostadinov's objections.
“What not?“, he asked.
“I'm no good“, said the speaker of the parliament with a smile.
“You won't behave here like some sergeant major. Not only are we not getting answers, but you also allow yourself to behave like a person who doesn't know what he's doing in this place“, Kostadinov continued to argue with her on the microphone off.
Kiselova, however, pointed out that two minutes had passed. The leader of "Vazrazhdane" continued to present his thesis from the podium.
The floor was taken by Tsoncho Ganev from "Vazrazhdane", who was also angered by Kiselova's actions and Zafirov's response. The Speaker of the Parliament imposed a penalty on him for insulting a member of the government.
A recess was declared at the request of ITN.
In his words, this National Assembly is harmful and should not work: "We will do everything necessary to prevent it from working. The rulers should not create unnecessary tension, because with arrogance and cynicism they will achieve nothing."