site.btaUPDATED PM-Designate Proposes Caretaker Cabinet

At a meeting with President Rumen Radev here on Friday, Prime Minister-designate Dimitar Glavchev proposed a caretaker cabinet. He was tasked to propose a lineup by the head of State on March 30, in fulfillment of Art. 99, Para. 5 of the Constitution which says the President, after consulting the parliamentary groups and on the proposal of the candidate for caretaker Prime Minister, appoints a caretaker government and schedules new elections within two months.

Following is the proposed caretaker cabinet lineup:

Deputy PM and Finance: Lyudmila Petkova

Justice: Maria Pavlova

Interior: Kalin Stoyanov

Defence: Atanas Zapryanov

Foreign Affairs: Ivaylo Tzenov

Regional Development and Public Works: Violeta Koritarova

Labour and Social Policy: Ivaylo Ivanov

Transport and Communications: Georgi Gvozdeikov

Health: Galya Kondeva

Education and Science: Galin Tsokov

Environment: Petar Dimitrov

Economy and Industry: Petko Nikolov

Innovation and Growth: Rossen Karadimov

Energy: Vladimir Malinov

Electronic Governance: Valentin Mundrov

Agriculture: Kiril Vatev

Culture: Nayden Todorov

Tourism: Evtim Miloshev

Youth and Sport: Georgi Glouchkov

As he announced the proposed lineup, Glavchev said that he had sought to recruit experts and ensure a politically balanced Cabinet. He said its main task will be to guarantee fair elections. "It does not mean that work in the other areas will stop. We have to pursue Bulgaria's European path," he said.

He urged the political forces attending Friday's consultations with the President, to say what they thought about the Cabinet proposal.

Attending the consultations were Temenuzhka Petkova, Raya Nazaryan and Tomislav Donchev (GERB-UDF); Kiril Petkov, Atanas Atanassov and Hristo Ivanov (Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria), Jordan Tsonev, Stanislav Atanassov, Hamid Hamid (Movement for Rights and Freedoms); Kostadin Kostadinov, Petar Petrov and Tsoncho Ganev (Vazrazhdane); and Toshko Yordanov, Ivaylo Valchev and Stanislav Balabanov (There Is Such a People). The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) confirmed earlier on Friday that they would not join the consultations.

Kiril Petkov of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) had strong objections to having outgoing Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov on the list of caretaker ministers. He called it "a provocation and insult" for CC-DB and "an attempt to cover up dependencies in this caretaker Cabinet". He reiterated that Stoyanov was nominated for the Nikolay Denkov Cabinet by GERB and said that "worse than that, he is one of those people who are incapable of own opinion". "It was proven that there was vote trade at the [latest] local elections [while the Interior Ministry was headed by Stoyanov]," he added.

CC-DB also had strong objections against the proposed Justice Minister, Maria Pavlova, and the Electronic Governance Minister, Valentin Mundrov. 

"The two ministers who's job it will be to ensure independent elections, are GERB's responsibility," he said referring to Stoyanov and Mundrov. "All we can expect now is paper ballots and large-scale vote trade. We are outraged," said Petkov.

He also said that Gvozdeikov will be expelled from Continue the Change if he accepts to be part of this Cabinet.

The CC-DB delegation left the consultations. 

Jordan Tsonev of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) said that the Glavchev Cabinet can rely on MRF's support. He sees two priorities for the country under this Cabinet's watch: full Schengen entry and eurozone accession.

He underscored that after the revisions to the Constitution, Article 99 gives the caretaker Prime Minister-designate the right to pick their own Cabinet.

On his way of the consultations, GERB's Tomislav Donchev said that he is not going to comment the government composition. "There are no GERB members in it," he added. 

He also argued that the results of the elections depend on "the qualities of politicians running in these elections - not on the Interior Minister".

Donchev hopes for fair elections that would bring changes "after a nearly three-year spasm in which the entire energy of the parties was spent in mutual destruction efforts and nothing was left to get moving the social systems and bring changes that would bring results for people". 

There Is Such a People (TISP) floor leader Toshko Yordanov said it is only natural to suspect partisan influences in the caretaker cabinet after the 2023 constitutional changes. “These consultations, after the constitutional revisions, are the very essence of ‘meaningless’,” he added.

The constitutional revisions minimized the President’s role in the formation of a caretaker cabinet and reduced it to choosing a caretaker Prime Minister from among several high-level officeholders – who is then free to choose who goes in the cabinet. 

Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov said that this seems to be a well-balanced cabinet, with representatives of the three parties that were in the government: GERB-UDF, CC-DB and MRF. "The lineup contains names that in the past years were publicly associated and continue to be associated with GERB, CC-DB and MRF," pointed out Kostadinov adding that he was surprised by CC-DB's reaction.