Tomorrow I will submit a letter to the National Assembly that I withdraw my candidacy for Prime Minister. GERB will not participate in negotiations for the second term.
This is what outgoing Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria Maria Gabriel announced today, BGNES reported.
"I would like to say 5 important things today.
1. In the last nine months important reforms for Bulgaria have been happening with GERB. We have shown that we can give way to the national interest. And again in the name of making sure that Bulgaria has a government, there have been talks in the last 3 days. GERB made a gesture, and stepped back. And instead of this being appreciated, a new request came. So we said no.
No to permanent new conditions, and no to new and new conditions. This constantly fills GERB with intolerance regarding the refusal to meet our request for shared responsibility.
2. I would like to express my regret at the situation that has been created in which it is evident that there is solid ground. I hope we will come back to it after elections, which I hope will be held with the country in mind and more humility and transparency for more responsibility.
3. I will remain as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs until the last day of this government. I thank all my fellow Ministers with whom I have not had a bad word.
4. In the election option, I want to show how important it is that the campaign will be up to us - whether we pit people against each other, whether we play on people's fears, or whether we take the time to clearly identify the important priorities and go into post-election negotiations with respect for each other.
5. Tomorrow I will submit a letter to the National Assembly that I am withdrawing my candidacy for Prime Minister. Under the circumstances, I clearly state that GERB will not participate in negotiations for the second term, Gabriel added.
The moment we signalled that we could step down for the defence and energy ministries, the We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (WCC-DB) demanded a change in the interior ministry as well, Gabriel explained. I stand against this principle today, she noted.
I have repeatedly said that I expect an apology, not in a personal capacity, but for the sake of those women and mothers who realise themselves at a high professional level. And to this day I have not received such an apology, the outgoing Deputy Prime Minister explained.
Gabriel stressed that there were no differences in the agreement with the WCC-DB, except for the services and the part related to investigative secrecy.
Temenuzhka Petkova, for her part, said that it was all over because of the WCC-DB's struggle for power and positions. "We stand firmly behind Maria Gabriel. The GERB group believes that this political racketeering is high time to stop," she concluded.
With all our efforts we managed to draw up a good agreement that will serve as a basis for any future negotiations after the elections. However, the insulting epithets directed at us were not in vain - they showed very clearly that in fact we managed to go beyond the phrase 'non-coalition'. What is important is what the negotiating team thinks of us, and that with the mistrust that was demonstrated, we could not win the trust of either the Bulgarian people or our international partners. We are grateful to Maria Gabriel, who made every effort and used all her contacts and did not stop working even during the negotiations, said Raya Nazarian. /BGNES
