This is not an April Fool!

In Bulgaria, the bill to impeach the president has failed. Last week a motion to debate the impeachment bill was supported by 162 votes, just one more than the two-thirds majority required for the impeachment bill to be passed.

Yesterday, the impeachment bill proper was debated in the parliament. This time, the bill received just 155 votes. Given it failed to reach the two-thirds majority, the impeachment process ends. Had it passed, then the Constitutional Council would have decided the president’s fate.

The different between the two votes lies with the deputies from the right-wing RZS (Order, Law, Justice) party. They have eight deputies and they voted in favour of the motion to debate the impeachment, but then voted against the impeachment bill itself.

The bill was also opposed by the president’s socialist party colleagues and by the Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party. It was supported by the ruling GERB party, as well as by its allies in parliament, the Blue Coalition and the Ataka party.

There is a report on the debate by the Sofia News Agency.