Bulgarian Interior Minister Spearheads Ruling Party's Election Campaign

Tsvetanov (left) has got Borisov's back again as he will be heading the GERB party's campaign effort in the fall presidential and local vote. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Interior Minister and Deputy PM Tsvetan Tsvetanov has been appointed the head of the campaign headquarters of the ruling center-right party GERB for the presidential and local elections in October 2011.

Tsvetanov, who is the second most important man in the Borisov Cabinet and the GERB party, was selected to head the election efforts by GERB's Executive Commission Tuesday night.

Tsvetanov's appointment is taken to mean that he will not be GERB's candidate for president of Bulgaria in the upcoming elections.

GERB's administrative secretary Tsvetomir Paunov was selected as Tsvetanov's deputy together with MP Iskra Fidosova, a former notary public, who will be in charge of legal issues.

The GERB party is expected to present its entire election headquarters staff at a news conference on Sunday; it will also present its criteria for selecting its candidates for the local elections.

Citing unnamed sources, the Bulgarian daily "Trud" said that Tsvetanov himself expressed reservations about his appointment since in the recent months he was discredited by leaked tapes of senior officials' phone conversations, or Tapegate, and claims that he acquired illegally apartments in Sofia.

What is more, he was concerned that he might be attacked by the opposition that as an Interior Minister he will employ all resources of the police to crush his party's opponents.

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