Thursday's successful ousting of Parliament Speaker Nikola Minchev (WCC) provoked a demonstration in support of him and of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov after the vote. Some MPs, such as Kostadin Kostadinov (Vazrazhdane), Toshko Yordanov (TISP) and MRF leader Mustafa Kardaya had to be evacuated with the help of police due to public anger. In other news:
No-confidence vote against the Petkov cabinet due on 22 June
The National Assembly decided on Friday that the debate about the no-confidence vote against the Petkov government, which was proposed by GERB on Tuesday, will take place on Tuesday, 21 June, while the vote itself will be on the following day. So far, four parties - GERB, MRF, Vazrazhdane and loyalist MPs from the TISP party - have pledged to support the motion. Yesterday, they managed to muster 125 votes "for" Mr Minchev's dismissal, but since then yet another TISP MP - Kiril Simeonov from Varna - said he is leaving the parliamentary group of the party over its decision to ally with GERB and MRF.
Negotiations with Bulgaria on N. Macedonia's EU accession veto at "dead end": Commissioner
"What has become clear is that we are entirely at a dead end with Sofia. This does not make me too happy, as I have been spending every second Thursday in the country. It appears that countries' domestic politics can undermine trust in the EU. That is why there can't be any talk about a negotiations framework." So said EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi at the Open Balkan forum in N. Macedonia, as quoted by the National Radio.
At the same time, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev warned Prime Minister Kiril Petkov to stick to the established hardline position over the veto during next week's Council of the EU in Brussels, which will mark the end of the French EU Presidency and was supposed to kick off the accession process for Skopje and Tirana.
Trade deficit rises by 160% in April: National Bank
Bulgaria's trade deficit for the first four months of the year has reached 1,347 billion euro, which is a 160 percent increase compared to the 517.6 million euro deficit for the period from January to April 2021, according to the Bulgarian National Bank's (BNB) preliminary balance of payments data, published on Friday.
In April alone, the trade balance was 225.7 million euro, while in the same month last year the deficit was only 4.5 million euro, which amounts to a whopping 4915 percent increase. For the first four months of the year, exports reached 14,349 billion euro, up 32.8 percent compared to the same period last year, while Imports for the same period were worth 15,696 billion with an increase of 38.6 percent.
Thursday's successful ousting of Parliament Speaker Nikola Minchev (WCC) provoked a demonstration in support of him and of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov after the vote. Some MPs, such as Kostadin Kostadinov (Vazrazhdane), Toshko Yordanov (TISP) and MRF leader Mustafa Kardaya had to be evacuated with the help of police due to public anger. In other news:
