November 22 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian government of GERB-UDF and We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (WCC-DB) on Wednesday survived a no-confidence motion filed by three opposition parties over its defence policy.
The motion was rejected in a 155-71 vote in the 240-seat National Assembly, as seen in a live parliamentary broadcast.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party, the nationalist, pro-Russian party Vazrazhdane and the populist There Is Such a People (TISP) submitted the no confidence motion last week. A vote on the motion on Thursday had an inconclusive result due to lack of quоrum.
The survival of the government hinged on GERB-UDF and WCC-DB reaching an agreement on when to discontinue imports of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia. On Friday, the power-sharing parties and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) announced that they had agreed on the gradual phase-out of a derogation granted by the European Commission to Bulgaria, allowing the country to import crude oil and petroleum products from Russia by sea until the end of 2024 and to export products based on Russian oil to third countries, including Ukraine.
In October, the government survived a no confidence vote over its energy policy.