Bulgaria’s caretaker cabinet changes half of country’s regional governors
The Bulgarian caretaker Cabinet headed by Ognyan Gerdzhikov announced on February 8 that it had changed 14 of the 28 regional governors.
A government statement said that in most cases, the changes were made because of complaints against the regional governors or because of assessments of their performances.
Changing regional governors has been a regular occurence in recent years as elected and caretaker governments succeeded each other.
This time around, the regional governors replaced are those of Sofia, Sofia region, Blagoevgrad, Varna, Vratsa, Kurdzhali, Kyustendil, Lovech, Silistra, Haskovo, Turgovishte, Shoumen, Yambol and Veliko Turnovo.
Bulgarian-language media said on February 8 that several of the new appointees had links to the Bulgarian Socialist Party or to the National Movement for Stability and Progress.
The firing of the regional governors was not the only axe that fell on February 8.
Caretaker Transport Minister Hristo Alexiev dismissed the executive director of Bulgarian State Railways BDZ, Vladimir Vladimirov, replacing him with Georgi Drumev, and fired Railway Infrastructure National Company director-general Milcho Lambrev, replacing him with Krassimir Papukchiiski.
The dismissals followed an announcement on February 7 that Alexiev had ordered an operational plan to solve the problems at BDZ, which he described as being in critical condition.
(Photo: (c) Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
/Politics
