Bulgaria: Borissov’s GERB-UDF presents proposed cabinet
Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF received on July 1 the first mandate to try to form a government and immediately presented a proposed cabinet line-up with the former Speaker of the National Assembly, Rossen Zhelyazkov, as Prime Minister-designate.
This is a sequel to Bulgaria’s June 9 2024 early parliamentary elections, in which GERB-UDF won the largest share of seats in a seven-group 50th National Assembly, entitling it to be the first to receive a mandate to seek to form a government.
Zhelyazkov told head of state President Roumen Radev, who handed over the mandate: “I am handing over the structure and composition of the cabinet, with which I declare that this exploratory mandate has been successfully fulfilled”.
The proposed cabinet retains several members of the current Dimitar Glavchev caretaker cabinet and several GERB-UDF politicians who were previously in government.
Borissov told reporters: “We have come to terms with what the Bulgarian citizens want. Everyone says that it is bad to go to elections.
“This is a GERB government with several ministers who are doing well under the caretaker government. This is a government that can share responsibility and it is a government in which GERB-UDF bears responsibility,” he said.
“If the government goes through with some trick – whether some do not come, whether some support us, not as parties, not as a majority to carry out our programme, a clearly stated majority, then the government will have a very short life, not that anyone will overthrow it, we’ll just quit,” Borissov said.
He said that in this “very short life” the primary and most important goal was to approve a Budget and the other was the Recovery and Sustainability Plan.
“You know that when direct payments are removed, we become a donor country to the EU, as a result of the past two to three years of government.
“The euro zone is a political issue and if there is a government, I think we can move on it, just like we got you into the European Banking Union, just like we got you into the waiting room of the euro zone, then we can easily go to elections,” Borissov said.
He called on We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria – which repeatedly has said that it will be in opposition – to support the proposed cabinet and indicated that talks on changing candidate ministers could be held.
Zhelyazkov said that if Radev issued the decree proposing the draft cabinet to Parliament, the House could vote on it at its July 3 sitting.
The proposed line-up is:
Prime Minister – Rossen Zhelyazkov
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth – Tomislav Donchev
Minister of Finance – Lyudmila Petkova
Minister of Foreign Affairs – Daniel Mitov
Minister of Interior – Kalin Stoyanov
Minister of Regional Development and Public Works – Nikolay Nankov
Minister of Labor and Social Policy – Denitsa Sacheva
Minister of Defence – Atanas Zapryanov
Minister of Justice – Maria Pavlova
Minister of Education and Science – Krassimir Valchev
Minister of Health – Kostadin Angelov
Minister of Culture – Lyuben Dilov Jnr
Minister of Agriculture and Food – Georgi Tahov
Minister of Environment and Water – Ivelina Vassileva
Minister of Transport and Communications – Georgi Gvozdeikov
Minister of Economy and Industry – Temenuzka Petkova
Minister of Energy – Delyan Dobrev
Minister of Tourism – Evtim Miloshev
Minister of Youth and Sports – Krassen Kralev
Minister of Electronic Government – Vladimir Temelkov
(Screenshot of Zhelyazkov, Borissov and Radev via BNT)
Please support independent journalism by clicking on the 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 and get access to exclusive subscriber-only content:
