Unprecedented: 13 days of the first session of the National Assembly of Bulgaria, another attempt to elect a speaker

Wednesday marks the 13th day of the first sitting of the 51st National Assembly. "The sitting clock is stopped" and for three weeks now the deputies have been wandering in a legal and political maze, from which there is no way out, BGNES reports.
After GERB leader Boyko Borissov on Tuesday gave up the premiership he held in his right as the first political force, (in the scheme and Gen. Atanas Atanasov from PP-DB was to be elected as the Speaker of the National Assembly), the case of who will head the National Assembly became even more tangled. The ITN immediately refused to support a possible candidacy of the general, and supported its own - that of the oldest deputy Silvi Kirilov, for whom the PP-DB will also vote.
Earlier, over the weekend, Borissov extended his hand for negotiations to the PP-DB with the condition that he would be prime minister and Atanasov would be speaker of the National Assembly, but the coalition refused on the grounds that his candidacy for the prime minister's post was absolutely unacceptable for them. In turn Borissov answered them by saying that even if the first mandate goes to him, he will return it immediately, and he is not interested in the second and the third.
The co-chairman of the PP Kiril Petkov accused GERB-BDS of being dependent on Peevski.
It is likely that at Wednesday's meeting of MPs the same candidates will be put forward for the chairmanship as in the previous six identical meetings. GERB-SD will not give up its candidate Raya Nazaryan and will nominate her again, "Revival" will nominate again Petar Petrov, ITN during the week reconfirmed its nomination of Silvi Kirilov, and BSP will nominate again Assoc. Natalia Kiselova. On Friday, at the last vote for the chair, Raya Nazarian and Silvi Kirilov reached the ballot, with Nazarian again not gathering the necessary support - 69 MPs voted for her, 150 - against, 20 abstained, and Kirilov gathered the support of 101 MPs, 99 - were against and 37 abstained. In the vote for the ITN candidate, the coalition of "We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria" split, with 17 MPs voting in favour, 17 against and one abstention. Kirilov was supported by the entire group of "Revival", the APS, the ITN and the MEC. The 20 members of the BSP abstained.
Whether the meetings held on Tuesday between BSP - United Left, MECH and Revival can be expected to result in a surprise vote on Wednesday remains to be seen. The three formations held a meeting where they found more similar views than differences. The MEC are adamant that if there is a unification between the formations, it should be against Boyko Borissov and Delyan Peevski, while the BSP are willing to support Silvi Kirilov's candidacy for the presidency of the National Assembly.
"The majority, which will vote for Silvi Kirilov tomorrow, will also choose a government. Purely mathematically, the only possible majority without GERB is with "Revival", the GERB headquarters said earlier.
As long as no president of the National Assembly is elected, neither the parliament can work, as no parliamentary committees have been formed, nor the head of state can start consultations on handing a mandate for a regular government. I BGNES