Georgi Parvanov, leader of the Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) party and former president of Bulgaria, spoke Wednesday at an extraordinary press conference at parliament over the second-reading adoption of the 2016 State Budget Act.

The ABV’s support for the government seems to be shaken due to disagreement over next year’s state budget and the formation announced it would decide on whether it would continue supporting the governing coalition.

“We will not play the fifth wheel in this four-party coalition,” Georgi Parvanov warned, speaking the an extraordinary press conference.

Mr Parvanov added that the ABV National Council would hold a sitting to decide whether to continue supporting the ruling coalition.

“Under the pressure exerted by the rightist and leftist-populist formations Deputy Prime Minister for Demographic and Social Policies and Minister of Labour and Social Policy Ivaylo Kalfin managed to conduct a policy that brought results,” the politician remarked.

In his words, it was obvious that someone was against these working decisions.

“And this makes us think about ABV’s future in the ruling coalition,” Georgi Parvanov added.

“We will not play the role of the fifth wheel in this four-party coalition,” he said explicitly.

He explained that ABV’s support to the state budget for next year and its second-reading adoption should be interpreted as zeal to keep the stability of the government.

“In this situation of lack of serious dialogue we feel some haughtiness on behalf of the mandate-holder. We have the feeling that the strong result achieved by the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (CEDB) at the past local elections boosted its self-esteem too much,” Mr Parvanov commented further.

The politician explained that it was not the lack of dialogue to be ABV’s major remark in terms of the state budget but the lack of policies.

He added that the proposals of some other parliamentary groups had been accepted although they did not correspond to the adopted government programmes.

“Some parties are given Christmas presents, while the reasonable and working proposals of the ABV are ignored,” Georgi Parvanov remarked.

Bulgarian Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov spoke with journalists at parliament later on Wednesday.

“I do not think the coalitional agreement is threatened. The [state] budget is always a reason for debates on the country’s priorities,” he said when asked why the state budget had become the reason to expose the coalitional agreement to a risk.

Goranov commented the Council of Ministers had to a great extent found a good balance.

“The fact some party attempts to raise the issue of whether something could be improved at parliament cannot be viewed dramatically as an attempt at reconsidering coalitional forms. The implementation of the budget is yet to start after voting on it, which is more difficult and more responsible as a task. What was voted on today is the financial plan – its implementation is much more important and in reality shows the proportion of the priorities in governing,” Goranov stated.