Bulgaria President: Meeting Finance Minister Was Futile

Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov (l) , and Bulgaria’s Presidnet, Georgi Parvanov, have clashed on several occasions since Djankov was appointed to the post by the ruling GERB party.

Bulgaria’s President, Georgi Parvanov, published the transcript of his meeting with Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, just hours after their Friday talk.

Parvanov’s official position is that he had been against meeting with Djankov, and agreed to do so only upon the request of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov.

The transcript is available in Bulgarian on the Presidential Institution internet site http://www.president.bg/.

The conflict between the two flared up after the appearance of Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, in the late night show of the TV channel Nova Televizia Monday, where the Minister was asked to confirm claims that the President is a “young billionaire” and has “dozens of luxury properties in the United States, Europe and Dubai,” to which Djankov replied: “Well, he is definitely not young.”

In the beginning of the Friday discussion, Djankov states that he had two things to say – that the quote about the billionaire was passed to him and he never stated anything about Parvanov’s properties.

As far as the reply that the President is not young, the Minister points out the entertainment format of the show supposed the exchange of jokes and he wanted to lightheartedly brush off the topic, admitting his words have not been the best choice to do iso.

Djankov further explains that the whole thing had been a misunderstanding and in times of crisis misunderstandings among institutions are destructive, pointing out the priorities now are the revenues, and the ERM II while misunderstandings are distracting both him and Parvanov from their main job.

Through the entire conversation, the Minister reiterates his explanations and his stand about the controversy, but never offers an apology over the assertion he does not feel that he had done anything wrong.

At the end of the discussion Parvanov says: “I do not want an apology from you. I want the truth,” stressing on the fact that Djankov had tarnished his reputation and the one of the Presidential Institution and has acted according to a well prepared and rehearsed scenario to create tensions between the institutions.

“You must apologize to many people and social circles, not to me. You need to apologize to the private business for leading them to their current deplorable state; to the unemployed reaching hundreds of thousands in just 7-8 months; to the scientists and the science you dismantled and the incredible chaos you stirred, which I don’t see them being able to overcome; to the disabled for keeping them under stress for months; to the military men and the police because these systems are on the brink of collapse over your policies. You must even apologize to your colleagues, the other ministers for tying their hands. Of course, we are not going to hold this debate; we will hold it in public from now on. You had enough time, not 100 days, but much more. We are not going to bother people with our private relationship. Of course, I will not leave any of your personal statements without a reply. Such talk is unacceptable because a Deputy Prime Minister cannot throw jokes like this one at the expense of the President, whoever he is. Because tomorrow both you and I will be gone, but the institutions will remain and we have no right to leave them with such hostility towards each other,” Parvanov said.

Following the half-an-hour meeting Djankov refused to say whether he apologized for allegedly making wrongful suggestions that hurt the head of state.

“I said what I had to say. Thank you,” Minister Simeon Djankov told journalists on his way out of the presidency.

This is not the first clash between the President and the Finance Minister, who recently slammed Parvanov's experts as “imbeciles” and his “friends at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences” as “feudal elders”.

In November Parvanov accused Djankov of lying about how the Presidency bank account suddenly turned out to be empty, claiming the Finance Ministry withdrew the BGN 230 000 in it on purpose, an accusation the President reiterated during the Friday meeting.

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