Bulgaria's Borisov Cabinet has become a hostage of the nationalist party "Ataka", Socialist Party leader and ex PM Sergey Stanishev stated during Thursday's confidence vote debate in Parliament.

The government requested a vote of confidence in order to terminate the "Tapegate", a scandal damaging its image because of leaked tapes of phone conversations of senior officials, whose authenticity remains questionable.

PM Borisov's GERB with its 117 MPs enjoys the firm backing of Volen Siderov's nationalist party Ataka with its 20 MPs; thus the Cabinet musters 137 votes out of 240, an outright majority. The rightist Blue Coalition has declared it will abstain with its 14 MPs, while the Socialist Party, the ethnic Turkish party DPS and the marginal conservative party RZS will vote against the government.

"This is no preemptive strike. With this confidence vote you are putting a lid on a boiling pot, which soon will explode," Stanishev said refuting the comments that Borisov made a smart move by requesting a confidence vote before the opposition could get organized to demand a no confidence vote over Tapegate.  

Stanishev slammed the Cabinet for providing no answers to the major questions regarding the leaked tapes, and especially the question if the tapped conversation were real.

He said none of the senior officials involved has denied participating in the wiretapped phone conversations, while the person whose phone was tapped – Customs Agency head Vanyo Tanov – has disappeared in the past six days.

"Because of returning to the use of special surveillance devices, the government has opened Pandora's box letting out the evil spirits," declared the former PM. He slammed Borisov for not resigning as a result of Tapegate.

"Borisov has placed himself in a direct dependence and has become a hostage of the Ataka party with the confidence vote," Stanishev concluded.

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