The national council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party has estranged itself from its three members that were appointed by President Roumen Radev to the caretaker government, said BSP leader Kornelia Ninova on Friday August 5.
Ninova revealed this after a national council meeting held three days after the caretaker government came to power.
The caretaker government includes three members of BSP – Vessela Lecheva (sport), Krum Zarkov (justice) and Yavor Gechev (agriculture).
Speaking before the meeting, Kristian Vigenin, a senior BSP member, stated that the three had accepted the approval of being part of the caretaker government without discussing it with the party, violating the BSP’s internal rules.
Ninova stated that we distance ourselves from the national council’s members who were elected as ministers in violation of the party’s statute.
She said we don’t bear any political responsibility for their actions and the whole government.
She added that those who are selected as ministers, district governors, and deputy ministers and deputy district governors take part in this government in their personal capacity, not with a grant from the BSP and not as party representatives.
Ninova stated that the party regarded what she called the interference of the presidential institution into the internal affairs of political parties as unacceptable, particularly in the case of the BSP.
She said the main assignment of the caretaker government is to make sure optimal conditions for holding the early parliamentary elections and needs to abstain from any statements and actions which can be analysed as interference in favour or to the liability of candidates and parties taking part in the elections.
Radev did not confer with the BSP before its members’ appointments; at least, Zarkov is a well-known political foe of Ninova. Ninova stated there was no intention to dismiss the three from the BSP.
She stated that the authorised position regarding the three had been assumed with 104 votes in favour, five against and three abstentions.