The opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party has moved to initiate a no confidence vote for the center-right government of PM Borisov and the GERB party over the giving up of the Belene NPP, a joint project with Russia.

Last Wednesday, Borisov declared the quitting of the controversial Belene NPP project for the construction of a 2000 MW nuclear facility by Russian state company Atomstroyexport – or what was supposed to become Bulgaria's second NPP.

The project has been strongly favored by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, which led a coalition government together with the ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms), and the National Movement for Stability and Prosperity of ex Tsar and ex PM Simeon Saxe-Coburg.

Thus, the BSP has reacted strongly at Borisov's declaration, and has declared almost immediately it will initiate a no confidence vote.

Speaking on Tuesday, BSP leader Sergey Stanishev has invited all opposition parties to join no confidence vote consultations.

"The decision itself is a sufficient no confidence vote justification for us. Not that we don't have grounds to launch such a motion on a wider topic, but we are afraid that the debate will get blurred. We don't want to steal focus from this fatal decision," Stanishev explained.

In order to table the motion, the Socialists need a total of 48 MP signatures; their group, however, consists of only 40 MPs.

Meanwhile, the other major opposition force, the DPS party with 36 MPs, declared it would not back the no confidence motion, saying the topic was too narrow. This means that the Socialists could probably rely only on the nationalist party Ataka for support, as the nationalists have slammed the termination of the Belene project, and stand no chance whatsoever of toppling the Cabinet.

Stanishev, however, made it clear that his party wanted to get the no confidence motion voted before Easter (i.e. the Eastern Orthodox Easter – April 15).

The leftist leader further declared the Socialists are "not worried to be the minority in Parliament with respect to the NPP issue."

"The government is conducting an unpredictable anti-national policy placing under risk Bulgaria's energy independence and the future of its nuclear energy," declared Stanishev, who is currently the interim President of the Party of European Socialists.

"From the very beginning the Belene NPP has been a Bulgarian project, and it will be a lot cheaper in terms of electricity production costs than other projects that are currently being realized," he said.

The BSP chair also argued that the termination of the Belene project does not reduce Bulgaria's energy dependence on Russia.

"This government has already spent EUR 300 M on the Belene project, and keeps paying for the reactors that have been ordered for the NPP. The Russians will get theirs anyway, and Bulgaria will still have one more Russian-made reactor since they have been promised a 7th, and probably an 8th reactor at the Kozloduy NPP," he said, referring to the "solution" invented by Borisov to install the Russian reactor already produced for the Belene project at Bulgaria's existing NPP in Kozloduy.

Stanishev also added that Borisov has promised to the Russians a role in the creation of a natural gas TPP to be construction on the Belene site.

"Such a TPP will produce electricity that is twice more expensive that the produce of a NPP, and it will consume natural gas from Russia, or from the extraction of shale gas, with which they can ruin the nature and people's lives in Northeastern Bulgaria," the Socialist leader declared.

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