Bulgaria's far-right Ataka (Attack) party will not support the upcoming no confidence vote against the country's centrist-right GERB government, its leader, presidential hopeful Volen Siderov, has reiterated.

Even though Ataka has officially withdrawn its support for GERB, it has no intention of supporting the vote against Bulgaria's minority government, since it sees no alternative.

Martin Dimitrov, co-chair of the rightist oppositional Blue Coalition has admitted there is no alternative to GERB, Siderov pointed out before the private bTV channel.

"Why is he supporting the vote then?," the nationalist rhetorically asked.

However, Siderov criticized GERB's government, claiming that it was letting foreign forces "colonize" the country's business. The Bulgarian business should be better stimulated, he stated.

The nationalist presidential candidate was also highly critical of the government's plans to finalize shale gas exploration talks with US Chevron and seal a contract in the next few days, saying the deal would harm Bulgaria's agricultural sector.

The no confidence vote over what has been perceived as failure in the sphere of home affairs , as well as the country's delay in joining the Schengen Area, has been initiated by the opposition, led by the leftist Bulgarian Socialist Party and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

The right-wing Blue Coalition, which used to back the Borisov Cabinet, has declared it will support the no confidence vote over what it regards as personal failures of Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov. The conservative Order, Law and Justice Party, RZS, is also backing the vote.

However, in order for the no confidence vote to pass, 121 Members of the Parliament (half of all 240 plus 1) have to vote in favor. GERB has 117 MPs but with the renegade MPs its majority gets boosted to 131 MPs.

The opposition can hope to rally 94 votes in its best-case scenario – 40 from BSP, 35 from DPS, 14 from the Blue Coalition, and 5 from RZS. It is unclear if the 16 Ataka MPs will abstain or boycott the vote.

This is the third no confidence vote against the cabinet of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, submitted by the opposition. The first one was over the failure of policies in the health care sector; the second, in June 2011 – failure in the anti-crisis policy.

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