Bulgaria’s National Assembly votes to reinstate disbanded parliamentary group

Sofia: Bulgaria’s National Assembly voted by a large majority on March 26 to reinstate the parliamentary group of nationalist-populist party Mech, dissolved five days earlier by Speaker Natalia Kiselova on the grounds of having too few members to constitute a group.

In the 240-seat National Assembly, the vote was 170 in favour, one against, and there were two abstentions.

The votes in favour came from Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF, We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, the Vuzrazhdane group with the exception of one who abstained, the Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left group with the exception of one who abstained and one who voted against, the Ahmed Dogan loyalists of the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms, populist ITN, populist-nationalist Velichie and 11 Mech MPs, who at that point were technically non-aligned.

Delyan Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning absented itself from the vote.

Kiselova had announced on March 21 that the Mech group was dissolved because it had fallen below the threshold of 10 members needed for an official parliamentary group.

However, the swearing-in of two Mech MPs was pending at that point.

Kiselova’s decision was controversial and led Mech leader Radostin Vassilev to call it illegal and demand her resignation.

Vassilev alleged that Kiselova had taken the decision under pressure, which she denied, releasing on March 25 a timeline in which she said Mech had had the opportunity to have its two MPs sworn in to boost the membership of the group to 11.

With the reinstatement of the Mech group, Bulgaria’s 51st National Assembly reverts to having nine groups, with Mech as its second-smallest.