Scepticism, caution about Bulgaria’s second Glavchev caretaker government
Reactions from parliamentary groups to the second Dimitar Glavchev caretaker government, which took the oath of office in Parliament on August 27, range from scepticism to caution.
The Glavchev caretaker cabinet will have stewardship of Bulgaria as the country heads to early parliamentary elections on October 27, the seventh time in just more than three years that Bulgarians elect a legislature.
Parliament’s second-largest group, the reformist We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (WCC-DB) coalition, said in an official statement on August 26 that it had not had high expectations, but the new cabinet exceeded negative expectations.
WCC-DB said that it had no trust in Atanas Ilkov, who succeeds Kalin Stoyanov as caretaker Interior Minister.
The coalition said that Ilkov had been proposed during failed talks on a coalition government earlier in 2024, and it had rejected him because he had led the action in Lyaskovets in 2014 in which an Interior Ministry officer died and three employees were injured.
WCC-DB said that it had enough information that Ilkov was “ another conductor of (Movement for Rights and Freedoms co-leader) Peevski’s interests, another Kalin Stoyanov”.
“Our assessment of Atanas Ilkov’s work will depend solely on his ability to distinguish himself from Peevski’s influence and pressure. This can happen in one way – by limiting vote buying.”
Tsoncho Ganev, deputy leader of pro-Kremlin party Vuzrazhdane, said that the party did not trust the caretaker government and said that it did not trust Ilkov, closely associated with Peevski, to stop vote-buying.
Bulgarian Socialist Party acting leader Atanas Zafirov said that it was good that Glavchev had taken the public mood into account and proposed a new candidate for caretaker Interior Minister.
Zafirov said: “I hope that Atanas Ilkov will quickly and urgently give guarantees to calm the tension in the system and society, as well as to guarantee the honesty and transparency of the elections, which is the task of every caretaker government”.
Peevski, speaking to reporters in the corridors of Parliament on August 27, said of WCC-DB’s statement that Ilkov was “his man”, “When I listen to them, it turns out that all the interior ministers are mine, the prime ministers are mine, and maybe the president is mine too “.
Ramadan Atalai, of the MRF group aligned to founder Ahmed Dogan and opposed to Peevski, said: “If you expect us to express satisfaction or denial, you won’t hear it. Let’s see what their actions will be, what they will do during the elections”.
GERB-UDF MP Daniel Mitov said: “It doesn’t matter what the opinion is about the caretaker government, but after the next early elections we should make a regular cabinet.”
“I don’t know Atanas Ilkov, I can’t say anything about him,” Mitov said.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
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