"The good news is, we have a positive “yes” for the post of acting prime minister, with which we are getting out of a potential constitutional crisis. Because everyone was wondering what would happen if everyone refused? Because then we would enter a constitutional crisis, which the Constitutional Court had to resolve in some way. But with Andrey Gyurov's statement - we are getting out of this case". This was stated by the political scientist from “Trend” Dimitar Ganev in the "Interview in NOVA News", commenting on President Iliana Yotova's meetings with potential caretaker prime ministers.
He explained that nothing formally obliges the head of state to announce on what basis she made her choice for caretaker prime minister.
„But I am sure that there will be an argument on her part. We must clarify that after the changes to the Constitution that were made - the presidential powers in the part regarding the caretaker cabinet have been extremely curtailed. Because each of the potential prime ministers is elected by the National Assembly, without any form of consultation with the head of state. The big problem in the constitutional changes is - who bears responsibility? Who currently bears responsibility for the executive branch, since this is obviously not the president? The idea of the previous texts was that the president, being directly elected, has the legitimacy to transfer it to a possible caretaker executive branch. And now the responsibility seems to be neither in the parliament, nor in the parties, nor in the president - it is concentrated in one of the designated caretaker prime ministers, included in the “home book“, the political scientist emphasized.
In his words, all this creates some kind of tension. “Because everyone in the “home book” was elected by the National Assembly over the past few years. And in fact, they have some kind of connection to certain parties. The caretaker cabinet is usually formed on the basis of some party or political network around which these people have gravitated. In this case, none of the potential caretaker prime ministers is part of a network close to either Radev or Mrs. Yotova”, Ganev pointed out.
And he pointed out that the potential first candidate for prime minister who agreed - Andrey Gyurov, “ is without any doubt in the network of “We Continue the Change”. “Other potential candidates who could agree - for example, Dimitar Glavchev, are also in this network. This is evident from the last official cabinets that he formed”, said the political scientist.
When asked whether the candidates from the “home book” have the right to refuse the post of official prime minister, Ganev replied: “Yes, of course they do. The point is that since they were elected after the constitutional changes, they should have been aware of this possibility and had foreseen it when choosing them. Not everyone is in this situation, but nothing formally obliges them”.
Regarding the possible date for the elections, the political scientist predicts that at the beginning of next week, that is, around February 9 - we can expect President Yotova to indicate to whom she will give a mandate to form a caretaker cabinet. “Thus, the first possible date for early parliamentary elections seems to be April 19. I emphasize - first possible, because the process can hardly be accelerated. The previous possible date - April 12 is Easter, and April 5 is Palm Sunday. In addition, there are school holidays, which also makes these dates unsuitable. So - at this stage, April 19 seems to be the most likely date for early voting”.