Novinite's Blueprint for a Bulgarian Caretaker Government
Features | July 16, 2014, Wednesday // 12:50| viewsPhotos by BGNES
One might say it is not our business to draw out cabinets and distribute ministerial seats.
But in the current situation it seemed right to us to offer our own version of a task that the Constitution has assigned to the President - to produce a cabinet blueprint which could set the situation in Bulgaria at rest and return trust in the institutions.
Here is what we think:
Prime Minister: Svetoslav Gavriyski. He was one of the authors of the currency board, he was Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) and before that served as Finance Minister in the 1997 caretaker government of Stefan Sofiyanski. Gavriyski has proved he knows what he is doing in times of a crisis.
Minister of Finance: Violina Marinova, Chief Executive Officer of DSK Bank, Bulgaria's second-largest bank in 2013. She enjoys huge confidence both in the financial world and among bank clients. There is no need to talk of her long experience in finance.
Minister of Economics and Energy: Vasil Velev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA) - manages large-scale enterprises and is experienced. He was an in-depth knowledge of all economy sectors generating GDP. Businesses will put their trust in him.
Minister of Healthcare: Yuliyan Yordanov, Deputy Chairman of the Bulgarian Medical Association. He is familiar with both the healthcare system and its issues. He takes active part in negotiations with the National Health Insurance Fund and can count on his colleagues' trust.
Minister of Tourism: Branimir Botev. The state has left the sector to coordinate itself in recent years, but in our case this means disregard of responsibility. There are thousands of national cultural and historical sites, which, if governed properly, could bring new jobs and added value. Furthermore, beaches and other sites that are exclusive state property and need some effective governing. Botev, apart from being deputy minister in the current government, has huge experience in private business.
Minister of Labor and Social Policy and Deputy Prime Minister: Plamen Dimitrov, Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (KNSB). Energetic and experienced. He would have to care for the socially vulnerable layers of society and he can do it, because he is decisive. And "winter is coming", as House Stark says.
Minister of Environment: Georgi Stefanov, WWF. You know these guys with the panda. For this post we need a person for whom ecology is a vision and future and not only money to allocate. Such a person would guarantee that the money will be spend on ecology and not on leaflets.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister: Kristalina Georgieva. Whatever we say about the outgoing Bulgarian EU Commissioner on humanitarian aid, it won't be enough. She is charismatic and has all that is necessary to represent Bulgaria on the highest of levels.
Minister of Interior: Yavor Kolev, the cyber-cop. He is not a typical representative of the system and is an integral part of it at the same time. A technocrat who destroyed many gangs for credit card frauds. He achieved much in the fight against pedophilia and piracy for which he received hate from many internet users. If he starts dealing with more important issues, maybe he will stop chasing "Zamunda" and "Chitanka", two sites for disputed downloading of original content.
Minister of European Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister: Gergana Passy. Rich experience, culture (in the European sense of the word), administrative capacity and good looks.
Minister of Defense: Yordan Bozhilov, Sofia Security Forum. A technocrat who built up his experience in his years of work as the adviser of the Defense Minister. He has the decisiveness to return the army to its glamor. He will probably be unable to buy new planes in the three months of a caretaker government, but...
Minister of Regional Development: Dimitar Nikolov, mayor of Burgas. If he can do so much for his city in such a little time frame, let him work on the national level. He is obviously gifted. He comes from the business circles, he governed the best factory for biscuits, and now he proved himself in the political-administrative "Hunger Games". It's all clear.
Minister of Agriculture: Kiril Vatev, Tandem. He built from scratch one of the most successful companies in the food industry. For years he headed one of the industry associations, he certainly has an idea of what's going on. Someone has to deal with the unfair European subsidies in agriculture - why is our sheep so inferior to the Greek one that it gets just half the subsidies?
Minister of Transport: Yordan Nedev, so that he can finish what he started as the CEO of the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ). Yet another technocrat who knows how to restructure troubled firms. The first time they didn't give him a chance, but now we have 3-4 instances of derailed trains since the beginning of the year. We are ready to give him a second chance.
Minister of Education: Prof. Gancho Ganchev, rector of the economic faculty of the South-West University. He understands finance and academic life. The bad news is that in just three months it's impossible to achieve anything in education.
Minister of Culture - Kiril Marichkov. He has a cause, it is useless to talk about his talent. Recently he spent a lot of energy protecting publisher rights. It's one thing, however, for Marichkov to send messages, it's a completely different thing for Krisko (a Bulgarian rapper) to scold you for downloading mp3s.
In June Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev announced Parliament is to dissolve on August 6, with a caretaker government to assume office until elections are held October 5.
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