Bulgaria's parliament rejects no-confidence vote

The no-confidence vote against Bulgaria's socialist-led coalition government has been rejected, with 111 votes against, 86 votes for, and 20 abstainees.

The no-confidence motion was initiated by center-right party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) over the failed investment planning policy of the government.

78 MPs of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and 33 MPs of the liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms party (DPS) voted against, while 20 MPs of nationalist party Ataka abstained.

The motion was backed by 86 MPs of GERB, despite the fact that a total of 96 MPs of the center-right party initiated the no-confidence vote, according to reports of Sega daily.

At the beginning of Wednesday's sitting, GERB insisted that no vote was supposed to take place because the debates on the topic held last Thursday had been illegitimate due to a procedural breach.

GERB's request to reschedule the vote on the no-confidence motion for Thursday was rejected.

The scenario of Wednesday's parliament sitting was largely unclear, taking into account the two cancelled sittings last week due to the lack of a quorum.

The MPs are also to discuss the request of GERB to dismiss Parliament Speaker Mihail Mikov over the breach of Parliament's rules of procedure committed on Thursday last week.

Adapted from Novinite