site.btaFinance Minister: State Budget Cannot Be Hostage to Any Head of Hospital

Minister of Finance Assen Vassilev, who spoke to reporters here on Wednesday, commented Health Minister Hristo Hinkov's decision to remove the Director of Sofia's Pirogov emergency hospital, Valentin Dimitrov, and the ensuing protests from the GERB-UDF coalition. After GERB-UDF refused to attend a meeting of the parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday and threatened to boycott the Cabinet, Vassilev said: "There's no way the state budget can become hostage to any head of hospital. My personal opinion is that if a minister fails to secure support for the policy they are pursuing, the right thing for that minister to do is to resign".

The Finance Minister said that any minister should have complete autonomy in the policy they conduct and they people they appoint. If said minister failed to secure support from the ruling parties or the prime minister, the right move would be to resign, instead of putting the state in gridlock.

Vassilev said: "If the budget does not get adopted this year, it automatically means that the policy I am pursuing is not accepted by the parties that support the government, and I will resign".