At a conference in Plovdiv, GERB leader Boyko Borissov said that the budget for 2025 was the product of the collective irresponsibility of the past 4 years, “skillfully conducted” by the co-chair of We Continue the Change (PP) Assen Vassilev, who was finance minister in the governments of Kiril Petkov and Nikolai Denkov.

• Finance Ministry releases draft of state budget for 2025
• The Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association calls for rewriting Budget 2025

Boyko Borissov said further that the opposition parties have no right to make criticisms either, because they too voted for an increase in the budget spending. “This is not GERB’s budget,” Boyko Borissov said and urged caretaker Minister of Finance Lyudmila Petkova to submit a draft budget with the real deficit.

As regards the political situation in the country and the upcoming negotiations on the formation of a government, Borissov stressed that he is hoping sound reason will prevail and that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” He went on to say that he had tasked his most diplomatic people with conducting the negotiations, people capable of achieving progress.

In a comment on the possible request for lifting the immunity of Lena Borislavova, MP from We Continue the Change (PP), Boyko Borissov stated that GERB/SDS would support her if an official request is tabled.

“I want our colleagues from PP to know that they will have 69 votes against,” said Boyko Borissov. “And if this does happen, my indignation will be such that I will sit down and take a look at the declaration (for a cordon sanitaire around DPS-New Beginning MP Delyan Peevski – editorial note),” he said.

• PP/DB will only negotiate government with GERB if it signs cordon sanitaire around Delyan Peevski
• PP/DB sends parliamentary forces a declaration on a cordon sanitaire around Delyan Peevski
  

Yesterday, a prosecutor from the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office proposed to acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov that the latter request the lifting of the immunity from prosecution of PP/DB MP Lena Borislavova over accusations of forgery of documents.

Meanwhile Lena Borislavova herself stated she would give up her immunity voluntarily. “My immunity cannot be a bargaining chip in the political processes taking place in the National Assembly,” she explained.

Photos: Radio Plovdiv-BNR, BTA