BULGARIA: Bulgaria's ruling coalition signed a power-sharing pact with a maverick opposition party yesterday to help it defeat a no-confidence vote against ex-king Simeon Saxe-Coburg's minority government later this week.
The deal signals a shake-up in the reformist cabinet but will allow its survival until summer general elections and ensure continuity of the country's efforts to join the European Union in 2007, officials said.
"This will allow this government to fulfil its ruling programme, which is extremely important to our society, but also for the image of Bulgaria abroad and especially in Brussels," Mr Saxe-Coburg told journalists after signing the agreement.
His National Movement for Simeon II (NMS) and its junior partner, the mostly Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, agreed to maintain a stable majority with the small New Time party for the remainder of parliament's term.
They also accepted New Time, a splinter group that defected from the NMS and cost the government its majority in 2004, as an equal partner and promised to unite campaigning efforts ahead of elections expected in June.
The parties gave no other information as to whether the agreement would include moves to reconfigure the coalition's ruling contract, including a government reshuffle.
But when asked whether New Time would be happy to support the Cabinet in its current form, the party's leader, Mr Emil Koshlukov, said: "No, we won't be. . . We'll talk about this tomorrow."
In the worst threat to Mr Saxe-Coburg since he came to power in 2001, opposition parties from both sides of the spectrum, including New Time, united last week to launch the attempt to oust the government over what they called a failure in domestic policy.
With his NMS and the MRF together controlling 118 of parliament's 240 seats, it appeared the government would fall, delaying constitutional reforms necessary for Bulgaria to sign its EU accession treaty in April as planned.
But New Time now gives it a majority, with 13 more votes.
"This means that the Cabinet will survive the vote and serve its mandate in full.
The no confidence vote will fail," the head of New Time's parliamentary group, Mr Miroslav Sevlievski, said. No date has yet been set for the vote but it is expected by Friday.
The motion was an embarrassment for Mr Saxe-Coburg, who is struggling to boost low popularity and contend with the powerful opposition Socialists for the right to lead the country into the EU.
But analysts said it was now nearly certain he would survive until the summer ballot.
Mr Saxe-Coburg's party swept to power with 43 per cent of the vote in 2001.
- (Reuters)