Bulgaria's center-right government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov expectedly survived on Tuesday a no confidence vote, submitted by the opposition over its alleged failure in the country's home affairs and aspirations for Schengen accession.

A total of 143 members of parliament voted against the motion, 91 supported it, while 1 abstained.

MPs from the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) submitted their third no confidence motion against the cabinet last Monday.

The opposition's motives for the no confidence vote, which targets in particular Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, are the "failure of the government in home affairs and public safety, Bulgaria's postponed accession to the Schengen Agreement, the police brutality, and the violation of basic human rights."

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

The far-right, nationalist Ataka, which was GERB's strongest ally since the latter's victory in the July 2009 general elections, recently officially declared they are now against GERB. Nevertheless, the nationalists stood on the side of the cabinet on Tuesday.

In order for the vote to pass, 121 Members of the Parliament (half of all 240 plus 1) had to vote for it. GERB has 117 MPs but it also enjoyed the support of about a dozen renegade MPs, who left RZS, Ataka and the Blue Coalition, giving GERB the comfort of over 130 votes.

The twelve "independent" members of the Bulgarian Parliament, renegades from a wide array of political parties, issued a declaration last week backing PM Boyko Borisov and providing his minority government with a parliamentary majority. They proved vital on Tuesday for the survival of the cabinet.

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 – over failure in the anti-crisis policy.

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