Bulgarian PM Borissov nominates Taneva to succeed Porozhanov as Agriculture Minister
A few hours after the resignation of Roumen Porozhanov as Agriculture Minister, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov tabled in Parliament the nomination of Dessislava Taneva to succeed him in the portfolio.
Porozhanov’s resignation was announced by the government information service on May 14, quoting him as saying that he was stepping down because he did not want the attacks on him to negatively affect the government.
Taneva, currently head of the National Assembly committee on agriculture and food, was Agriculture Minister in the second Borissov government from November 2014 to January 2017.
She had been tipped for the portfolio in the first Borissov government in 2009, but the post went to Miroslav Naidenov. At the time of that first government, she headed the National Assembly committee on agriculture and food.
Taneva has a degree in economics from the University of National and World Economy and graduated in law at Bourgas Free University in 2001.
From 1997 to July 2009, she was the executive director of Mel Invest. She heads the Sliven branch of Borissov’s GERB party.
The vote in the National Assembly to relieve Porozhanov of his post and elect Taneva in his place is reportedly to be the first item on the order paper on May 15.
Porozhanov’s resignation is the latest in the controversy-hit Borissov government, which has been shaken by controversy involving allegations regarding property transactions by ruling majority politicians. Tsetska Tsacheva stepped down as Minister of Justice in March 2019. Tsacheva, among numerous politicians now under official investigation, denies wrongdoing.
The first to go from the third Borissov government was Health Minister Nikolai Petrov.
Borissov accepted Petrov’s resignation on October 30 2017, a day after a Bulgarian television station said that while head of the Military Medical Academy, Petrov signed contracts worth about 1.2 million leva (about 600 000 euro) with a firm owned by a man with whom Petrov’s daughter had a child.
It was also alleged that these were the only two public procurements won by the company, which was not registered with a Bulstat number. Petrov was succeeded on November 10 2017 by Kiril Ananiev, previously the deputy finance minister.
On February 23 2018, Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said that she was submitting her resignation from Borissov’s Cabinet so that the then-proposed deal for the sale of energy utility CEZ’s assets in Bulgaria would not be called into question.
Petkova said that the reason that she was submitting her resignation was that for 20 years she had known the owner of the company that CEZ had approved as the buyer of its Bulgarian assets.
However, Borissov did not accept Petkova’s resignation, which thus was not put to the vote in Parliament.
A stranger twist came when on June 11 2018 the government information service said that Borissov had accepted the resignation of Bisser Petkov as Minister of Labour and Social Policy.
According to the statement, Petkov told Borissov that he was submitting his resignation because he could not deal with the tensions that have arisen in connection with the demands of parents who have children with disabilities.
But the following day, Borissov said that Petkov would stay on as Labour and Social Policy Minister. Several voices – including from among the protesters – had called for Petkov’s resignation not to be accepted.
On August 31 2018, Interior Minister Valentin Radev, Regional Development Minister Nikolai Nankov and Transport Minister Ivailo Moskovski submitted their resignations on the orders of Borissov, taking the fall for the Svoge bus crash on August 25, in which 17 people died and 21 were injured. Parliament voted their replacements into office on September 20.
Valeri Simeonov, a co-leader of the nationalist United Patriots grouping that is the minority partner in the third Borissov government, resigned in November 2018 as Deputy Prime Minister following outrage about offensive comments he made about protesting mothers of children with disabilities.
Simeonov’s successor, Mariana Nikolova, was voted into office by Parliament on November 21.
On December 20, Bulgaria’s National Assembly voted to close down the Ministry for the EU Presidency, and to dismiss from the Cabinet minister Liliyana Pavlova. Bulgaria held the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2018, the first time the country – which joined the bloc in January 2007 – has done so. The end of the six-month period after the EU Presidency meant the end of Pavlova’s portfolio.
(Screenshot of Taneva: BNT)
