One month after the early Parliamentary elections held in Bulgaria we can now say that the formation of the country’s new cabinet is now a matter of a few days only. On Thursday GERB and the United Patriots signed a coalition agreement. Moreover, GERB leader Boyko Borissov who is to become Bulgaria’s new Premier was handed in by President Radev a mandate to form the Borissov 3 cabinet. Boyko Borissov has one week to present the structure of the new cabinet.

The names of the future ministers in the new government are still unknown, but the structure of the next cabinet and the rules related to the decision making process were strictly specified in the new coalition agreement. The Borissov 3 cabinet will consist of four deputy Premiers and seventeen ministers. Unlike before, the distribution of the ministries between the coalition partners will not be based on fixed political quotas and some of the members of the new cabinet may be people who do not belong to the ruling formations. It is important to note that the main political decisions of the new ruling coalition will be taken with a consensus by a coalition council formed by three representatives of GERB and three members of the United Patriots coalition. Once, there was a similar council during the mandate of the three-partite coalition between the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and the National Movement Simeon the Second (NDSV), where the decisions were taken by the leaders of the abovementioned three parties. However, the decisions of the future coalition will be made with consensus, which eliminates the risk of a dictate by the bigger coalition partner GERB.

Moreover, the coalition partners have also adopted measures aimed at preventing any dictate at the separate ministries. The partners agreed that one of the Deputy Ministers in a given ministry must be appointed by the other coalition partner.

The coalition cabinet has been indirectly assured that it could rely on the support of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and of Volya party headed by businessman Veselin Mareshki. Boyko Borissov relied on such a floating majority at the National Assembly during his previous mandate and he has already gained experience in that respect. The only categorical opposition of the forthcoming ruling coalition is the BSP for Bulgaria coalition. However, even that coalition made it clear that it would refrain from any radical actions against the ruling coalition until the end of Bulgaria’s Presidency of the Council of Europe (the middle of 2018). Under these circumstances, the immediate future of the new coalition government of Bulgaria looks bright. On May 3 the names of Bulgaria’s new cabinet will be announced.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov