Bulgarian former regional development minister Nankov returns as deputy minister
Nikolai Nankov, who submitted his resignation at the end of August as regional development minister following the Svoge fatal bus crash, was appointed on October 10 as deputy minister of regional development.
Prime Minister Boiko Borissov issued the order appointing Nankov as deputy minister, the government media service said a few hours after Parliament voted to approve Nankov’s resignation as an MP.
The August 25 bus crash near Svoge led to 20 deaths, the largest number of fatalities in a bus crash in Bulgaria for more than a decade.
At the request of Borissov, three Cabinet ministers resigned because of the crash – those of the interior, transport and regional development.
On September 20, Parliament elected their replacements, with Petya Avramova succeeding Nankov as Regional Development Minister. Already at that time, the possibility that Nankov would return to the ministry as her deputy was telegraphed by the ruling majority.
Before Nankov’s resignation as Regional Development Minister was accepted, a group of businesses working in the sector said publicly that they did not see why he should take the fall because of the Svoge crash. Similar views were expressed by leaders within the ruling coalition.
(Archive photo: Nankov, centre, during an April 2018 visit to Blagoevgrad)
