Bulgarian president-elect Radev declines Plevneliev’s offer to name caretaker cabinet
Bulgarian president-elect Roumen Radev has declined President Rossen Plevneliev’s offer to name a caretaker cabinet that Plevneliev will use his power to decree.
Radev made the statement in a televised address provided to public broadcaster Bulgarian National Television, a few hours after Plevneliev said that he would not appoint a caretaker cabinet following the failure of Parliament’s parties to come up with an elected government.
Plevneliev said that he did not want to make Bulgaria a laughing stock by the country having a succession of three to four governments over five months, two of them under successive presidents.
The President said, however, that if Radev – who he noted had said he had a caretaker cabinet ready – came to him with names, he would immediately appoint them.
Radev responded that he was determined to adhere to the constitution, and would announce his caretaker cabinet after his January 22 2017 inauguration.
He criticised Plevneliev for what he described as his refusal to fulfill the obligation imposed on him by the constitution to appoint a caretaker cabinet after the mandate-offering procedure produced no result.
Political arguments and personal motivations did not change the constitution, Radev said.
“The pathos of good intentions does not override the provisions of the law,” the president-elect said.
The President could delegate powers only to the vice-president, but no one else, not even a president-elect, Radev said.
“I urge political actors to act responsibly in the situation and not seek short-term benefits. The long goodbye of the government should not be developed into a constitutional crisis,” he said.
Plevneliev’s decision not to appoint a caretaker government leaves in place the government headed by Boiko Borissov, who resigned in November 2016 after his GERB party’s candidate was defeated in the country’s presidential elections at the hands of socialist-backed Radev.
At a cabinet meeting on December 21, which Borissov said he had expected would be its last – to the extent that cabinet members had cleared their offices – the outgoing Prime Minister urged all ministers to carry on at their posts and fulfill their duties to the utmost.
/Politics