The majority in parliament today refused to extend the sitting until a vote on a GERB-SDS proposal for cheaper fuel. At a briefing in the National Assembly, GERB-SDS MPs said the ruling parties have failed for five months to deal with the price of fuel, electricity and goods.
The draft resolution calls for emergency steps to cut and cap motor fuel prices in Bulgaria for a time. Aleksandar Ivanov and a group of GERB-SDS MPs submitted it. It was item 3 on the agenda.
Toma Bikov of the biggest opposition group called the cabinet a government of "note-takers" that is out of touch with life. He said the ministers have spent their whole lives in the consumer sector, not in the sector that fills the budget.
Under the rules, the first Wednesday of the month is for resolutions and bills that can reach the floor without going through committees, Bikov explained. He said today's two breaks in the chamber were called to keep the fuel item from coming up, and that technical changes to laws were taken instead.
Bikov also said drones fell and fuel and electricity prices jumped during the two weeks without parliament because of the elections. He said the government has proposed nothing on petrol, gas or electricity, and that the Council of Ministers holds only general talks. "I am convinced that the slower they go, the faster time and life will catch up with them, because for five months they have done nothing except note things down," Bikov said. He urged the government to offer its own ideas if it rejects those of GERB-SDS, and said that dodging the debate shows the ruling parties are not ready to do their job.
A bill to compensate non-household users for dearer electricity was filed with parliament's registry on Monday, Zhecho Stankov said. GERB-SDS will ask for it to be added to today's meeting of the energy committee. Electricity last month cost two and a half times more than in the summer months, Stankov said. "The bakers will be the first to go under," he said.
Parliament speaker Mihaela Dotsova has not sent the bill to any committee, Stankov said in a declaration on behalf of the group. He said people want a fix for high prices of energy, fuel, goods and services, while the ruling parties talk about other things.
Temenuzhka Petkova objected to the minimum wage of €660 for next year set by the Council of Ministers. She said some of the indicators in the methodology are unrealistic and unclear. She said it is worrying that the amount will be set by what suits the budget.
Petkova also said the budget is slipping out of the ruling parties' hands as they negotiate with the European Commission over the 2027 budget plan. GERB had information that the Commission is quite critical of the plan. On reports of a "partial nationalisation of the second pension pillar", she said the topic had been discussed and such a proposal existed, but yesterday the ruling parties got scared of their own intentions.
In the parliament lobby, Democratic Bulgaria asked prime minister Rumen Radev and finance minister Galab Donev for an apology, saying they lied to people about the second pension pillar. The co-chairs of Yes, Bulgaria, Ivaylo Mirchev and Bozhidar Bozhanov, showed reporters correspondence between the European Commission and the Bulgarian side on contributions to the second pillar.