Bulgaria’s Glavchev caretaker government sworn in
At a ceremony lasting less than 10 minutes at a special sitting of Bulgaria’s National Assembly on April 9, the Dimitar Glavchev caretaker government took the oath of office.
Earlier in the day, the office of President Roumen Radev announced that the head of state had issued the decrees appointing the caretaker government – with a change in the foreign affairs portfolio from the initial list presented by Glavchev – and setting June 9 as the date for regular elections of Bulgaria’s members of the European Parliament as well as early parliamentary elections.
Bulgaria’s ambassador to Montenegro, Stefan Dimitrov, will hold the foreign affairs portfolio instead of the initial nominee, Ivailo Tsenov.
Glavchev told reporters that Tsenov had withdrawn because of “family commitments”.
Asked why he had not replaced Kalin Stoyanov as caretaker Interior Minister – a nomination that has caused considerable controversy, with the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria coalition calling for the withdrawal of Stoyanov – Glavchev said: “Because that’s what I decided”.
Radev, speaking to reporters before the caretaker government took the oath, said that if it was up to him, not only would he not have retained Stoyanov in office as Interior Minister, he would not have appointed him in the first place, as WCC-DB did.
The Glavchev caretaker government is the first appointed in terms of the amendments to the constitution approved by Parliament in 2023.
While previously the constitution provided that in the event of Parliament’s failure to elect a government, the head of state chose a caretaker government and dissolved Parliament ahead of elections, now the caretaker Prime Minister-designate chooses the interim government line-up and Parliament is not dissolved.
Radev has referred most of the provisions of the amendments to the constitution to the Constitutional Court.
“This cabinet is being created for the first time under the new provisions of the constitution and the frantic desire of the assemblage parties to take away the powers of the president in relation to the caretaker government,” Radev, referring to the informal coalition of GERB-UDF, WCC-DB and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
“Unlike all caretaker governments so far, I have not interfered in this in any way regarding personnel policy and I am not responsible for its actions,” he said.
The April 9 ceremony was the first time that a caretaker government was sworn in at the National Assembly, rather than at the Presidency. Last week, Radev insisted that this should be the procedure, in what was clearly a symbolic means of distancing himself from the interim administration.
(Photo: parliament.bg)
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