Cabinet is ready to accept responsibility whenever an alternative to its policies is offered, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said.

Stanishev attended National Assembly debates on the no-confidence motion opposition parties tabled. Rightist parties said that healthcare crisis was the main problem that the Cabinet failed tackling.

Opposition only praised past reforms without offering an alternative, Stanishev said as quoted by Focus news agency.

Nearly 4.3 per cent of the GDP is allocated to healthcare in Bulgaria. The percentage is insufficient, Stanishev said, and Bulgaria is lagging behind other European countries taking the figure into consideration.

“The question has to be solved politically,” Stanishev said. Cabinet had to decide “whether to cut down the budget of another economic sphere or to increase the expenditure threshold set in the state budget,” Stanishev said.

Stanishev also addressed criticism to the work of Health Minister Radoslav Gaidarski. Gaidarski was an excellent surgeon and a good citizen, while the opposition tried to prove he used the ministry for personal benefit, Stanishev said.

The no-confidence vote will take place on Friday, March 2.