Bulgarian government coalition council meeting cancelled again
For a second consecutive week, a meeting of the coalition council of Bulgaria’s ruling parties has been postponed, it emerged on October 15.
The meeting had been expected to discuss the appointment of a new chief secretary of the Interior Ministry, a post that has been vacant since September 19 following the resignation of Mladen Marinov, elected the following day as Interior Minister.
Deputy Prime Minister Krassimir Karakachanov told Nova Televizia that the coalition council meeting was cancelled because of the non-availability of two members – Tsvetan Tsvetanov, parliamentary group leader of Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s GERB party, and Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov, co-leader of minority partner grouping the United Patriots. Both were out of Sofia, Karakachanov said.
Apart from discussing a new chief secretary of the Interior Ministry, the council was expected to discuss restructuring of the ministry.
Volen Siderov, Ataka leader and another of the United Patriots co-leaders, has been calling for “reforms” of the ministry, especially after his wife was involved in a road rage incident in which she was allegedly the target of hostility by another motorist. Siderov alleges that the police mishandled the incident.
Siderov has been pushing for Svetlozar Lazarov, Interior Ministry chief secretary from 2013 to 2015 and later a senior official in the Ataka party, to be re-appointed to the ministry post.
