Bulgaria’s Parliament to hold special sitting for swearing-in of Glavchev caretaker government
The Speaker of Bulgaria’s National Assembly, Rossen Zhelyazkov, has convened a special sitting of Parliament on April 9 at 9am for the swearing-in of the Dimitar Glavchev caretaker government.
The same day, head of state President Roumen Radev is to issue decrees on the date of Bulgaria’s European Parliament elections and the country’s latest early parliamentary elections, both to be held on June 9.
Glavchev presented his proposed Cabinet to Radev on April 5.
The June 9 National Assembly elections will be Bulgaria’s sixth parliamentary elections in just more than three years, and the Glavchev caretaker government will be Bulgaria’s seventh government in that time, counting in interim and elected administrations.
Under the previous version of Bulgaria’s constitution, the caretaker government took the oath in front of the president, who directly appointed the line-up.
Under the amended version, the line-up is named by the caretaker Prime Minister-designate and the caretaker government takes the oath in the National Assembly.
At consultations with parliamentary groups on April 5, Radev called on them, should they want changes to the line-up of caretaker ministers, to should seek out and discuss this with Glavchev by the end of April 8.
The We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria coalition has objected to the naming of Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov to continue in that portfolio in the caretaker government, as well as to those named for the e-government and justice portfolios, while saying it will expel the transport minister for not following the party decision not to be represented in the Glavchev administration.
DB co-leader Atanas Atanassov told bTV on April 8: “Glavchev is not a person who has his own will.
“His government was arranged by (GERB-UDF leader Boiko) Borissov and (Movement for Rights and Freedoms co-leader Delyan) Peevski,” Atanassov said.
Over the weekend, outgoing Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov appealed to Glavchev to think again about Kalin Stoyanov. WCC-DB’s view is that with Stoyanov in office as Interior Minister and Valentin Mundrov as E-government Minister, there will be abuses in the electoral process.
On the eve of the April 9 event in Parliament, Denkov announced that he had approached prosecutor Daniela Taleva about the suspected commission of a crime by Prosecutor-General Borislav Sarafov, Stoyanov and other officials.
It is alleged that Sarafov, with the participation of Sofia city prosecution administrative head Iliana Kirilova, and in the presence of anti-corruption commission head Anton Slavchev, pressured Zhivko Kotsev to submit his resignation as Interior Ministry chief secretary, threatening him with being charged with a serious crime if he did not do so.
Kotsev submitted his resignation on Thursday last week, but on Friday announced that he was withdrawing it because he had submitted it under pressure.
In a statement, Denkov alleged that on April 3, pressure on Kotsev to resign also was exerted by Stoyanov, who presented Kotsev with a resignation letter prepared in advance and insisted that he sign it immediately.
“As it became clear from a statement by Zhivko Kotsev at the end of last week, as a result of his frustration with the system due to the considerable pressure exerted, he initially decided to sign the resignation,” Denkov said.
“But after this resignation began to be cited as an argument for the appointment of Mr. Kalin Stoyanov as Minister of Interior in the interim government and that for additional ‘motivation’ for Mr. Kotsev to resign, a massive campaign was undertaken professionally and personally discrediting through ‘leaked’ materials in the media, he changed his mind and remained in office.”
Denkov called on Taleva to establish “all the facts and circumstances as to whether there is a crime committed by the above-mentioned persons”.
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