Bulgarian Parliament postpones vote on changes to Cabinet
Bulgaria’s National Assembly voted on September 13 to postpone its vote on the resignation of three Cabinet ministers and the appointment of their replacements.
The postponement was the result of President Roumen Radev not having signed a decree relieving Mladen Marinov of his post as Interior Ministry chief secretary, a step necessary for Marinov to be voted into office as Interior Minister.
Radev left for a two-day meeting in Latvian capital city Riga on the morning of September 13. Local media said that his office had received the decree on Marinov on September 12 and Radev would sign it on his return from Latvia.
In Parliament, Speaker Tsveta Karayancheva proposed the postponement of the vote, which was approved by 121 votes in favour and 22 against.
The voting, now unlikely to take place before next week, concerns the resignations of Valentin Radev as Interior Minister, Ivailo Moskovski as Transport Minister and Nikolai Nankov as Regional Development Minister.
On September 10, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said that he was nominating Deputy Economy Minister Alexander Manolev to become Transport Minister, Interior Ministry chief secretary Mladen Marinov to take over the ministerial portfolio and Deputy Regional Development Minister Petya Avramova to be promoted to minister.
Valentin Radev, Moskovski and Nankov submitted their resignations on August 31 after the August 25 Svoge bus crash in which 17 people died and 21 were injured.
The resignations triggered a melodrama in the ruling coalition. One of the three parties in the minority partner in government, Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov’s National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria, has said that it will vote against the resignations, though it will vote in favour the appointment of the replacements.
Similarly, there were misgivings in majority government partner GERB about the resignations and whether the three ministers should lose their posts over the Svoge disaster.
The resignations and replacements were the subject of a September 10 meeting of the ruling majority’s coalition council.
When Parliament is able to proceed with the vote, there will be sufficient support for the resignations and appointments to be approved.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
