Bulgarian Socialist Party had to explain why it had dismissed Roumen Petkov from the post of interior minister. While Petkov was in office, police arrested several major criminals, something that probably displeased some circles in the party, Sofia mayor and informal leader of Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) Boiko Borissov said in the morning show of private broadcaster bTV.

GERB was ready to ally with all the opposition parties, including the ultra-nationalist party Ataka.

According to Borissov, the rumours for his political and physical removal came from BSP.

Asked whether if murdered, authorities would say that he was murdered because of his past as an athlete and businessman [in the security industry], Borissov said: "Absolutely, they are already breaking the ground for it… No Borissov, no problems."

Borissov also commented on the uncollected refuse in Sofia last week: "At the moment BSP needed to distract attention from the catastrophic report of the European Commission, they took the gypsies to the seaside." The employees of the refuse collecting companies resigned en masse during the days when the report was to be announced and later were re-instated to their jobs.

Krassimir Karakachanov, leader of the Bulgarian party Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO), told Nova Television that the sixth no-confidence motion against the Cabinet, filed on July 23, had "probably [been] doomed at the formal voting". However, when an opposition party and society were both unsatisfied with the Cabinet's work, the no-confidence motion was the only legal way to show it.

"When a Cabinet does not do its job, the fault is collective," he said.

"According to publications in European media, it appears that Bulgarian people are lazy and thievish, something that they are not."

"Bulgarians are sick and tired of seeing saviours; what they needs is a realistic alternative," Karakachanov said.