Bulgaria's Ruling Coalition Shaken by Resignations

Bulgaria's ruling coalition was seriously shaken and came close to collapse following the resignation of three ministers as Valeri Simeonov, one of the leaders of the junior coalition partner, strongly objected to Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's decision to order the ministers to step down, and threatened to quit.

This is not the first time Simeonov has seemed unhappy with his partners, but this time he gave a final ultimatum to Borissov to change the way the coalition is working and start making decisions more transparently.

On August 31, Borissov demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Valentin Radev, Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski and Regional Development Minister Nikolay Nankov over their political responsibility for a bus crash that killed 17 people and left many more wounded six days earlier.

There are suspicions that the deadly accident could have been caused by defects in the road construction; it was built by Trace Svoge, which is majority-owned by local construction company Trace Group Hold.

All the ministers told to resign are from the quota of Borissov's GERB party. In a statement over the weekend Simeonov said that his party, the far-right National Front for Salvation of Bulgaria (NFSB), strongly objects to Borissov's move as it was not coordinated with his coalition partners.

"The frenetic replacement of executives liquidates the statehood and hits badly the possibility for execution of the coalition programme," Simeonov said in a statement.

A day later, on September 3, he decided to give a last chance to the coalition following a meeting of the United Patriots, the far-right junior coalition partner, which, apart from NFSB, comprises the Bulgarian National Movement (VMRO) and Ataka.

The United...