We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria coalition announces proposed government
The We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria parliamentary group announced its proposed government on May 2, confirming that it was naming Nikolai Denkov as its candidate prime minister while omitting most of the coalition’s leadership from being nominees.
As the second-largest parliamentary group, WCC-DB would be second in line for a mandate to seek to form a government, should GERB-UDF, entitled to the first mandate, fail in its bid.
WCC co-leader Kiril Petkov and Democratic Bulgaria co-leaders Hristo Ivanov, Atanas Atanassov and Vladislav Panev are not on the list of candidate ministers. They also would not be nominated to head parliamentary standing committees, Petkov said.
The exception is WCC co-leader Assen Vassilev, nominated as Minister of Finance and European Funds.
Petkov told a briefing: “Starting to solve people’s problems is one of our guiding principles”.
He said that the coalition had no right to disregard the votes of 620 000 Bulgarian citizens who had backed it in the April 2 early parliamentary elections, and was sticking to its decision not to vote for a cabinet nominated by GERB-UDF.
Denkov said that in coming up with the list of candidate ministers, the main consideration was that they were people who could carry out a governance programme.
The proposed government is:
Nikolay Denkov – Prime Minister;
Assen Vassilev – Minister of Finance and European Funds;
Irena Dimitrova – Minister of Foreign Affairs;
Andrey Yankulov – Minister of Interior;
Andrei Tsekov – Minister of Regional Development and Public Works;
Georgi Gvozdeikov – Minister of Transport;
Genka Petrova – Minister of Education and Science;
Todor Tagarev – Minister of Defence;
Alexander Iolovski – Minister of Electronic Government;
Radoslav Ribarski – Minister of Energy;
Ivan Krastev – Minister of Labour and Social Policy;
Hristo Daskalov – Minister of Agriculture and Food;
Hristo Hinkov – Minister of Health;
Milen Mateev – Minister of Justice;
Dimitar Iliev – Minister of Sports;
Yana Genova – Minister of Culture;
Daniel Lorer – Minister of Innovation and Growth;
Julian Voinov – Minister of Economy;
Gergana Kabaivanova – Minister of Tourism;
Georgi Tabutov – Minister of Ecology.
The reaction of GERB-UDF was awaited. GERB-UDF leader Boiko Borissov said last week that his coalition wanted to see the WCC-DB list of proposed ministers before deciding its stance. Should a deal with WCC-DB not be achieved, GERB-UDF would hold talks with other parliamentary groups on support for a government nominated with its mandate, Borissov said.
Vuzrazhdane and the Bulgarian Socialist Party have said that they would not vote for a government nominated with GERB-UDF’s mandate.
President Roumen Radev, asked on May 2 by reporters when he would hand over the first mandate, replied: “Soon”.
Please support independent journalism by clicking on the ‘become a patron’ button below. For as little as three euro a month or the equivalent in other currencies, you can support The Sofia Globe via patreon.com:
