Parliament today rejected two requests from Vazrazhdane: one for a hearing with ministers over the November 10 pile-up on the Trakia motorway, and one for a hearing on the state of Toplofikatsia Sofia, the Sofia district heating company.
The vote took place on a day of mourning, declared for the day after the crash. Parliament speaker Mihaela Dotsova read out the proposals for the agenda.
Vazrazhdane asked for regional development and public works minister Ivan Shishkov and Alexander Todorov, chair of the management board of the Road Infrastructure Agency, to come to the chamber today and explain what caused the crash. MPs did not back the proposal.
"Today is a day of mourning, and I think we need to gather more information and hear more people," Bozhidar Bozhanov of Democratic Bulgaria told the chamber. He said everyone in the hall wants the circumstances of the crash to be made clear. His group did not vote because, he said, the day was not the right one. Bozhanov proposed holding the hearing next week, with a request signed by all parliamentary groups.
Dotsova said the chairs' council discussed the arguments for mourning and for humility earlier today. "Today is the day after the serious crash, and there may still be no data," she said. She said a few more days to collect data would allow a more objective hearing.
On Toplofikatsia Sofia, Vazrazhdane asked for energy minister Iva Petrova and Plamen Mladenovski, head of the energy regulator KEVR, to appear on Thursday. The party's questions covered the technical and financial state of the company and its work, the effects of breakdowns, planned repairs for affected customers, growing debts, and the results of checks by the ministry and KEVR. MPs rejected this request too.
On a proposal from Dotsova, which the chamber approved, item five on the agenda became the first reading of changes to the VAT Act. Democratic Bulgaria, Vazrazhdane and the Council of Ministers put the bill forward.
MPs are also due to hold a first reading today of changes to the tax laws, which the budget committee discussed yesterday.