Bulgarian Parliament Halts Session on Friday Over Quorum Shortage

Bulgaria's parliamentary session scheduled for Friday faced cancellation as the Parliament Chairman, Rosen Zhelyazkov, halted proceedings due to the absence of a quorum. With only 68 out of 240 MPs present in the plenary during the second attempt, the minimum requirement was not met.

During the initial attempt, 65 MPs, predominantly from opposition parties like There Is Such a People, BSP for Bulgaria, and Vazrazhdane, registered their presence. The disruption stemmed from these three groups, as they impeded access to the rostrum during Thursday's session. Vazrazhdane's leader, Kostadin Kostadinov, emphasized that this was a firm stance against what he referred to as "lawlessness and totalitarianism" within the country's governance.

Today there was a boycott of the parliament by the ruling "non-coalition". During the two checks of the quorum WCC-DB, GERB-SDS and DPS did not register and as expected there was no quorum in the hall. So today's meeting never started. A series of emergency meetings is expected, as the small budgets on the floor, the big budget for 2024 must be passed on second reading in committee and on the floor by next Friday. In addition, the constitutional reform must also be adopted in the second and third readings.

Precisely because of the lot of work involved in the management program of the rulers, it is curious how today they did not stay behind and blame the meeting. In addition, less than 24 hours ago, WCC-DB co-chairs Kiril Petkov and Atanas Atanasov accused the three parties in opposition of putting a brake on money for health.

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