DECLARATION of the parliamentary group of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF),
read in the National Assembly’s plenary hall by MRF leader Mustafa Karadayi
This country is on the edge of the cliff. Amid a global energy crisis, when fuel supplies to Europe are blocked and Brussels calls upon us to save up to 15% on natural gas, Bulgaria is left without its most important regulator - the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC).
It turned out that, just like all the governance of the "We Continue the Change", the management of the EWRC too was conceived in sin and lies. Its chairman was elected in violation of the Constitution. Prime minister Kiril Petkov entered the Council of Ministers the similar way - by running over the Constitution and in order to use the power in the interest of himself and his circle of friends. We can also add deputy prime minister Assen Vassilev's blacklisting of persons and companies, as well as the illegal arrests, police raids on the homes of elderly disabled people and the outrages during the 2021 elections ordered by interior minister Boiko Rashkov. Only those who did not challenge the illegal actions did not win their cases in court.
Today, a year after Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev were instilled in power from behind the scenes, perjury has been renamed patriotism, lying has become the norm and the law. Violation of the Constitution is already and act of heroism, and the rule of law exists only when all the judicial power is in the hands of “smart and beautiful” (promoted as such by the oligarch Ivo Prokopiev), or the administration of the justice system is exercised by the Bolshevik, the restorer of communism, through inhumane and repressive methods and techniques of old times. And of course, it all happens in violation of the Constitution and the laws of the nation, and via the destruction of democracy, state, and statesmanship.
Illegal decisions have become the fundamental law. EWRC is illegitimate, but it is in its hands to determine the shocking price increase of electricity, natural gas, and water. The prime minister in resignation is not here in parliament to seek a way out of the deadlock, but instead he goes to Azerbaijan to negotiate gas supplies, without the government having announced any strategy to resolve the energy crisis.
Every single decision of this cabinet is unilaterally cancelled by Kiril Petkov or Assen Vasilev, the moment it threatens their existence in power. 890 000 dollars for the Russian Embassy in Sofia were halted by Assen Vassilev because of the "sanctions against Russia''. To allow negotiations with the Bulgarian Socilaist Party however, the money was silently unblocked. For four months, Petkov ardently defended the shameful memorandum with Gemcorp., only to cancel it overnight with the striking motive - "to remove the topic from public attention". The boisterously introduced ceiling of 5 million leva for loans from the Bulgarian development bank (BDB) has been quietly dropped this week so that those who need larger amounts of money may take advantage of the state-owned bank before the elections.
Just to point it out by the way, instead of the evidence Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev promised regarding Mr. Delyan Peevski, yesterday we heard the director of the BDB refute their lies about Mr. Peevski.
Gentlemen in office, will you not apologise for the smear campaign with which you climbed on the back of the MRF to get into power? Hardly! To you, honour and dignity are dirty words. The only thing that matters are your offshore companies, your bank accounts, your commissions, and your deals in the interest of your family-friend circle, and above all - your oligarch and media-energy monopolist and mentor.
With these new "values of the Change", however, you have not made Bulgaria richer, as you promised, but you have buried it with billions in debts and fines that will be paid by the next generations.
The power sector is collapsing, business is in a stupor, people are terrified of not knowing how to make ends meet. Not only is the EU Recovery plan failing because you did not pass the necessary legislation, but it will likely be cut down by another billion because of your scandalous deal with the offshore company Gemcorp.
Bulgaria is already in a severe political crisis. And we see the signs:
- There are ministers, but no authority. Every cabinet member is saving his own skin, the government does not work for the people.
- The negotiations for a new cabinet are being artificially protracted, avoiding the priorities but adopting new legislation for repressive state institutions before the elections. It is obvious to all what will be the new role of Boiko Rashkov in the anticorruption commission and whose baseball bat he will be there. And it will all naturally happen again in violation of the Constitution and the laws of the country. Because this is the condition for having negotiations on forming a government with the third mandate.
- The National Assembly has run out of content because, instead of solving problems of the people and businesses, it focuses its agenda on how to conquer the repressive state bodies and use them for personal gains against opponents during the upcoming early elections. And we have already witnessed the outrages in independent state regulators like EWRC, preceded by the usurpation of power from behind the scenes.
There is only one way out. And we, the MRF, clearly indicated it - immediate dissolution of the 47th National Assembly and early elections in the autumn. We cannot allow today for Bolshevik methods, from the time of Zhan Videnov's government, to be used to remain in power. We remember those days when their intention was to stay in power until blood is spilled or for another 45 years. We are uncompromising that even if the four-party Bolshevik coalition once again produces a government, its life will be no longer than six months. After that, at the end of the year, the energy crisis, the galloping inflation, the looming recession and the lack of a budget for 2023, this nation will be plunged not only into the abyss of unprecedented poverty, but also into the chasm of hatred, revenge, revanchism and counter-revanchism.
We urge the President of the Republic to implement the Constitution, complying with Decision 20 of the Constitutional Court from 1992, and call early parliamentary elections as soon as possible.
