The government of Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev (standing) survived its seventh no confidence vote Thursday night by a comfortable majority of 148 vs. 85 votes. Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria's government of the ruling three-way coalition survived its seventh no-confidence vote by a comfortable majority Thursday night.
Of the total of 233 Members of Parliament who cast their votes, 85 MPs voted in favor of the no confidence motion, and 148 voted against. No MPs abstained.
The no confidence vote was initiated by the rightist opposition parties over "the complete failure of all government policies". The three parties from the ruling coalition united firmly behind their government.
The government of the three-way coalition consists of PM Sergey Stanishev's Bulgarian Socialist Party, the National Movement for Stability and Progress of the former Tsar and former PM Simeon Saxe-Coburg, and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
The three-way coalition government had its first no confidence vote in April 2006 over its inability to cope with the consequences of floods in Bulgaria. The second no confidence vote was in March 2007 over the government's failure in health policy, and the third in October 2007 was over the crisis in education after Bulgaria's teachers went on a month-and-a-half strike.
The Cabinet survived its fourth no confidence vote in February 2008 over its failure to address corruption and organized crime. The fifth no confidence vote was in April 2008 over the alleged connections of Interior Ministry officials with organized crime figures and individuals investigated by the intelligence services.
The government's sixth no confidence vote was staged in July 2008 over the cabinet's failure to adhere to the rules for the absorption of EU funds, which was pointed out in two devastatingly critical monitoring reports of the European Commission.