Lyutvi Mestan, leader of the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), has said that Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev must be capable of handling the responsibility arising from the budget update veto.

In a Wednesday media statement, Mestan commented on the partial veto imposed by President Rosen Plevneliev on the Law on Amending and Supplementing the State Budget Act for 2013.

The leader of DPS, as cited by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA), suggested that Plevneliev had made an unprecedented move because the budget revision proposed by the socialist-led coalition government created the statutory conditions for the resolution of a number of very serious social problems plaguing Bulgarian citizens and the business sector.

Mestan claimed that even the delay of these measures brought up the question about the accountability of the person who had exercised the right to impose a veto.

He noted that DPS would comply with the veto with all due respect, adding that the party had acted the same way whenever Plevneliev exercised his right to impose a veto, "even when his acts appear ill-founded."

He expressed hopes that exercising the right to impose a veto would not turn into a conditioned or even unconditioned reflex because the instrument, even though it was a constitutionally enshrined right of the President, was not to be devalued.

In a Wednesday statement, Bulgaria's head of state announced he had imposed a partial veto on the Law on Amending and Supplementing the State Budget Act for 2013, saying the Socialist-led coalition government had not shown enough transparency in its use of public money.

He explained that the package of social measures included in the budget update constituted a very small share of the earmarked expenses.

Plevneliev pointed out that there was insufficient information about how the new debt of BGN 1 B would be spent.

He noted that he failed to see serious plans about policies and reforms in support of competition and economic growth.

Bulgarian Parliament Chair Mihail Mikov called an extraordinary parliament sitting over the veto on August 30.

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