Bulgarian Parliament to Vote on Kuneva's Nomination for Education Minister

Politics » DOMESTIC | February 3, 2016, Wednesday // 07:57
Bulgaria: Bulgarian Parliament to Vote on Kuneva's Nomination for Education Minister The plenary chamber of the Bulgarian National Assembly. Photo: BGNES

The Bulgarian parliament will decide on Wednesday whether to approve the the nomination of Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva as the country's new education minister.

This development comes after Prime Minister Boyko Borisov demanded the resignation of Education Minister Todor Tanev last week due to the systematic problems in the education system and the proposed controversial changes to the school curriculum which have not been subject to broad public discussion.

Tanev resigned on Monday after it had emerged that will be appointed as an adviser to the prime minister.

At a meeting with his junior coalition partners from the Reformist Bloc (RB) last week, Borisov said that he will leave it to his allies to determine the nomination for new minister as the portfolio comes from their quota.

Following two extraordinary meetings of representatives of the parties constituting RB last week, Kuneva was nominated to succeed Tanev.

Although Borisov approved her nomination, her election remains uncertain as she failed to attract the support of all four parties constituting the governing majority.

After a hearing on Tuesday, Kuneva secured the support of eighty MPs from the main ruling party GERB as well as thirteen lawmakers from RB.

However the two parties supporting the coalition government are not going to vote in favour of Kuneva.

The MPs from the Patriotic Front (PF) will vote against or abstain, while lawmakers from the Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) are yet to decide whether to abstain or not participate in the voting.

The opposition parties – Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) and nationalist Ataka will not support her nomination.

Eight MPs from the Bulgarian Democratic Centre (BDC) as well a threes non-affiliated lawmakers are expected to vote in her favour.

In order for the nomination to be approved, it needs to garner the support of more than half of the MPs present in the plenary chamber.

Borisov will not be present during the debates and voting as he will be departing for London where he is to attend an international conference on Syria on Thursday.

The nomination of Kuneva will be presented to the MPs by Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev.

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Tags: Bulgaria, education, Meglena Kuneva, Boyko Borisov, Todor Tanev, Tomislav Donchev, resignation, GERB, RB, PF, ABV, BSP, DPS, Ataka, BDC

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