President Radev: Current Government Is Morally Finished, Should be Formally Finished As Soon As Possible

President Rumen Radev Tuesday said that "the current government is morally finished and it is of utmost importance that it is finished formally as well, as soon as possible". "Anything else is agony and wasting of precisions historical time, which fires up people's anger even more," the President told reporters.

Anti-government protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev have been going on for close to two months now. A big rally is being prepared for Tuesday, when Parliament opens its new session after the summer break.

Radev said further that when the government's resignation is a fact, the most important thing is that the incumbents and the MPs don't vote to form an interim cabinet. "People have been protesting demanding the resignation of the government in order to put an end to the Borissov regime. Having such an expert cabinet will cement the current regime and will be nothing short of its puppet," Radev said.

According to the current Constitution, when a government resigns, the resignation needs to be supported by two-thirds of the MPs in Parliament, after which the President offers a mandate to the biggest group to form a new government. If they fail or decline to do so, a mandate is offered to the second biggest group and then to one more, and then, if all mandates fail, Parliament is disbanded and the President appoints a caretaker government to prepare general elections within two months from the disbanding of the previous legislature. 

President Radev further said that a new GERB government will be a betrayal of the expectations of Bulgarian people, which should not be allowed to happen because then the Borissov regime will be organizing the elections and the Prime Minister "will make sure he stays in power for life".

"By the constitution, the MPs express the will of the people and need to respect this will, which is clear: immediateresignations, caretaker cabinet, fair elections and new trust," Radev said.

He then spoke of "unprecedented consolidation of expatriateBulgarians", who have been holding anti-government rallies in many cities abroad. According to Radev, these ongoing  ralliesare people's real vote of no confidence in the present government.

Referencing GERB's plan to change the Constitution, Radev said that it is wrong for a failed government to start any constitutional debate whatsoever, to continue to run this
country and determine its future. "It is cynical for a government that has trampled the Constitution, to propose revisions," the President said, recalling that his team has already drafted its own proposals for constitutional amendments.
 

 Radev, who is also Supreme Commander-in-Chief, was speaking to the press during a visit the G. S. Rakovsky Military Academy inSofia for the start to the new academic year.

Source: BTA