Bulgarian President takes steps towards designating caretaker Prime Minister
Bulgarian President Roumen Radev held talks on August 21 with officials listed in the constitution as eligible for appointment as caretaker Prime Minister.
This follows Radev’s refusal on August 19 to decree the interim government proposed by Prime Minister-designate Goritsa Grancharova-Kozhareva because of the inclusion of controversial figure Kalin Stoyanov in the interior minister portfolio.
The current caretaker Prime Minister, Dimitar Glavchev, confirmed that he was ready to hold the post if Radev chose him again – a reversal of Glavchev’s earlier position that he did not want the job.
Glavchev said days ago that he did not want to be designated as caretaker PM again, so as to lower political temperatures. This left Radev to choose Grancharova-Kozhareva, though that came to naught, followed by Glavchev saying that he was now willing to take the job, given that his earlier refusal had not lowered political temperatures.
Similarly to the situation in early 2024, of those on the limited list who are eligible to be caretaker PM, most again turned Radev down in their talks on August 21.
These included central Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) governor Dimitar Radev, his deputy Radoslav Milenkov, and Audit Chamber deputy head Toshko Todorov.
Also refusing the post was Raya Nazaryan, who was elected as Speaker of the National Assembly in June.
Of those eligible for appointment as caretaker PM, BNB deputy governor Petar Chobanov said a fortnight ago that he was available for appointment. However, Chobanov, a former Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) MP who was finance minister in the “Oresharski” administration, is close to MRF co-leader Delyan Peevski, with whom President Radev is at political loggerheads.
Glavchev, emerging from his talks with Radev, said that they had not discussed Stoyanov.
“We have not discussed Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov because no decree has been issued for him to be prime minister,” Glavchev told reporters.
Among Bulgaria’s parliamentary groups, those who want Stoyanov out of the post of caretaker Interior Minister include the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria coalition, Vuzrazhdane, and – in a reversal of its long-standing support for Stoyanov – Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF.
Still backing Stoyanov is Peevski, who said on August 20 that if Stoyanov was ousted, he would put him on his list of parliamentary election candidates.
Stoyanov told reporters on August 21: “For the moment, I believe that it is right for me to remain in office in this situation, as we see that there are attempts to control the system”.
A key issue currently is whether, if again designated as caretaker Prime Minister, Glavchev will present a proposed interim government that omits Stoyanov. Radev, who wants Stoyanov out, would then move to decreeing such a government – should he have no problem with any other name – and naming a date for early parliamentary elections.
However, some constitutional and legal experts see an issue if Radev designates Glavchev as caretaker Prime Minister for a second time, an issue in Glavchev returning to the post of head of the Audit Office, and an issue in Glavchev’s tenure as caretaker Foreign Minister.
Doctor of Constitutional Law at Sofia University Simona Veleva said that the Audit Office Act said that the head and deputy head of the office may not hold any other paid position or perform any other paid activity unless appointed as caretaker Prime Minister.
However, Glavchev was caretaker Foreign Minister, and the Audit Chamber Act explicitly introduced incompatibility regarding political posts, with the only exception for caretaker PM. This made it debatable whether Glavchev could return to the Audit Office, Veleva told Bulgarian site Mediapool.
She said that was not the only potential problem, because Glavchev currently is head of the cabinet and temporarily not the head of the Audit Office. This meant that he was not on the list of potential candidates and could not be reappointed as caretaker PM.
There was a further problem. Glavchev was caretaker Foreign Minister, but Veleva said that he had never been sworn in as such, casting doubt on the validity of the documents that he had signed in that capacity.
Constitutional law Professor Ekaterina Mihailova also took the view that because Glavchev was caretaker Foreign Minister, he was not compatible with the post of head of the Audit Office.
Overall, as of the current situation on August 21, Bulgaria knows that there will be early parliamentary elections again – the seventh time in just more than three years that Bulgarians elect a legislature – but does not know the date when these election will be held.
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