On Friday, 13 October, parliament will put to the vote the motion of no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, National Assembly President Rosen Zhelyazkov announced after 4 hours of debate. According to the Rules of Organization and Procedure of the National Assembly, the voting can take place no earlier than 24 hours after the end of the debates on the matter. For the no confidence vote to be approved, no less than 121 MPs out of the total of 240 MPS have to have voted in favour. The motion was tabled by the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party, There Is Such a People (ITN) and Vazrazhdane over “the government’s failure in the energy sector”.

“The opposition sought a no confidence vote in the government over its failure in the energy industry. The only thing that we have seen fail today are the attempts by the opposition to deceive the Bulgarian people that there is some kind of energy apocalypse coming,” PM Denkov said. The government and Brussels are not going to close down coal-fired power  stations, they will close under pressure from the energy market. Nikolay Denkov said further that there will be no energy shortage in the country, as work is underway to introduce a number of new capacities. By 2040, an increase in the capacities installed is expected - from 13,000 to 30,000 MWh. “Bulgaria only stands a chance of remaining an exporter of energy to neighbouring countries if it modernizes its technological capacities, PM Denkov said. The Bulgarian prime minister stated he did not expect the vote of no confidence to go through.