Socialist Anton Kutev says the new government will be kept hostage by the nationalist Ataka party. Photo by BGNES
A high ranking member of Bulgaria's Socialist Party has denied media reports that the formerly ruling formation may support the new center-right GERB government.
"The Bulgarian Socialist Party will not support the cabinet of Boyko Borisov in any way, but it will be a credible opposition," Anton Kutev, secretary of the executive bureau of the party, said on Saturday.
He forecast that the new government will be kept hostage by the nationalist Ataka party, which is the only formation among GERB potential partners that has declared full support for the cabinet.
According to Kutev the right-wing parties in the Blue coalition and the conservative Order, Law and Justice will abstain from voting on Monday, when the cabinet will be put to the vote in parliament.
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, which makes it easy for it to enter a wide range of informal alliances.