Bulgaria Right Wing Gives GERB Memorandum Big Thumbs Down

Bulgaria's Blue coalition, which brings together the two biggest right-wing parties, will not sign the memorandum for political partnership offered by election winner GERB in a bid to secure support for its minority government.

This emerged on Friday following talks between the leadership of Democrats for Strong Bulgaria and the Union of Democratic Forces.

The rightists, however, stressed that they will support Bulgaria's new government when it is put to the vote in parliament, most probably on July 27.

The conservative center-right GERB claimed 116 MP seats in July 5 vote, shattering Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev's Socialist Party and falling just five seats short of holding a majority in the 240-seat unicameral parliament.

The share-out of MP seats makes it possible for GERB to enter a wide range of informal alliances to achieve outright majority, but also faces it with the risk to fall victim to political bargaining.

GERB has proposed a draft memorandum, which highlights the unity and consolidation of the majority, support for the future cabinet and the adoption of constitutional amendments.

The memorandum for political partnership and support for the new government will be offered to all parliamentary parties except for the ones that participated in the outgoing Socialist-led three-way coalition.

Bulgaria's right-wing parties have repeatedly expressed concerns over the formation of a minority government on basis of a memorandum, saying it is a dangerous experiment and risks instability.

They have stressed that memorandum is not a binding agreement and can be no guarantee for as long a period as a four-year term.

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