Bulgaria’s caretaker PM Raykov spells out tasks of interim administration
Bulgaria’s caretaker prime minister-designate Marin Raykov, who takes office on March 13 2013, spelt out his administration’s tasks in a speech immediately after his appointment was announced by President Rossen Plevneliev.
He also spelt out what the caretaker government would not do – it would not discuss constitutional amendments or changes to electoral laws. This was a reference to street demands by various groups of protesters.
Raykov, the 53-year-old diplomat who will have stewardship of Bulgaria pending a new government after May 12 ahead-of-term elections, said that in recent months the streets had seen Bulgarians unequivocally expressing their outrage at the tests imposed on them.
He said that it had been a “demonstration of national pride, of anger, of the fact that many institutions had failed to protect citizens from arbitrary monopolies”.
Raykov said that the first task would be the organisation of democratic and transparent elections. These elections would be neither manipulated nor falsified, pledged Raykov, who also underlined that the caretaker administration was apolitical and would be impartial.
He said that the caretaker government would, within the strict budgetary framework, take concrete measures in the field of incomes, improving the situation of Bulgarian pensioners.
Earlier, Plevneliev had said that the planned increase in pensions as of April would go ahead in spite of the resignation of the Borissov government.
Raykov said that Bulgaria would continue to fulfil all of its commitments as a partner in the European Union and Nato.
He underlined that the existence of the Currency Board would not be called into question.
There would be no policy against financial discipline and no economic adventurism.
In a note on the elections, he said that anyone who had demonstrated arrogance against the demonstrators would face judgment at election time.
Raykov also noted that the Bulgarian electorate was made up of millions, not thousands – a reference to the thousands who had turned out on the streets in recent weeks.
We have heard the protesters, now let us give the floor to the silent majority, Raykov said.
