BSP advocates restoration of old legislation on caretaker governments

In the next National Assembly, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) will propose a change in the constitution and a return to the old rules, particularly in the part on how caretaker governments are chosen. Atanas Zafirov, the interim leader of the socialists, said that the party would not take part in talks on staffing decisions in key institutions for the country in this Parliament, saying that it had exhausted itself.

The BSP also believes that Kalin Stoyanov cannot be interior minister because he has shown political bias. The party supports President Rumen Radev's call for a caretaker government without Stoyanov.

Under the previous constitutional provision, the president himself appointed the composition of the caretaker cabinet if Parliament failed to elect a regular cabinet.

According to the latest amendments, agreed by We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB), GERB and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), the president has a short list from which to choose a caretaker prime minister - the speaker of the National Assembly, the governor or deputy governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, the head or deputy head of the National Audit Office and the ombudsman or his deputy, but some of these posts are currently vacant.

A few days ago, the PP-DB proposed a meeting of representatives of the various parties in Parliament to fill the vacancies on the list of potential candidates for caretaker prime minister.