Bulgaria: Kiril Petkov Presented the Cabinet and the New Policies

The candidate for Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Ministers and the ministers from the draft cabinet "Petkov" arrived at the National Assembly, where Kiril Petkov listed the names of each one, BGNES reported.

On Monday we will appear in the National Assembly for voting on the new composition of the Council of Ministers. Our ambitions are to manage for 4 years and to complete all the tasks we have set under the motto "zero tolerance for corruption", said Kiril Petkov.

There will no longer be non-transparent funding from someone's ministry to someone's media. We will want to give a clear idea to the Bulgarian people what funds go to which media, said Petkov.

We have a special annex to the coalition agreement on the first legislative actions we will take. Our first priority will be the price of electricity - to be reserved for household consumers, for business to be within acceptable limits. The second focus is the covid crisis - the level of vaccination will have to rise dramatically. The CCCCIAP law will be one of the top priorities in the beginning.

Each minister comes with his own team. They will be able to appoint their deputy ministers. Regulators - they will be given real strength so that every minister can be sure that he will be under supervision.

Petkov announced that the coalition partners have agreed that the chairmen of the committees in the National Assembly will not be from the same quota as the line minister. For the district governors, the agreement is to respect the proportion as with the ministers.

We hope to have a constructive way of working with the opposition. They are obliged to tell us every wrong step we make, Petkov added.

The way of communication with the coalition partners will be constant. No one will act alone. Continuous communication will guarantee that we will work successfully and in the long run, said the nominee for prime minister.

In response to a question from BGNES regarding Lozenets Hospital and whether the regular cabinet will suspend the decision of the caretaker Minister Stoycho Katsarov to transform Lozenets Hospital, Petkov said: Asena Serbezova will be our Minister of Health. From now on there will be no hasty general talk, every decision will be based on analysis, benefits and risks.

Today is not the day to discuss individual topics, because we have not yet intervened as ministers, he added.

The candidate for prime minister did not give a specific answer to the second question of BGNES, related to a decision from the last meeting of the caretaker government, which voted once again BGN 5 million additional to the state news agency (BTA) to disseminate information from institutions. This decision contradicts internationally established journalistic practices for access to information, and anyone who disagrees with such a decision is said to be threatened with the name of Asen Vassilev, with financial and tax pressure.

I personally believe in his integrity (Assen Vassilev's - editor's note) as much as in myself, as in each of our colleagues. So, each of his decisions will be taken in the sense of the best that can be done for the Bulgarian people. I guarantee you that, but I would not go into more details, replied Kiril Petkov.

Regarding Bulgaria's policy towards the Republic of North Macedonia, Petkov said: We and RNM have a lot to gain from a common decision. The Bulgarian position remains as it is, but we want to upgrade it. We do not want to continue only with slogans on both sides of the border, we want to sit in teams and move towards good neighborliness, but we will also defend our national interests, concluded Petkov.

The new Council of Ministers will have 5 deputy prime ministers and 19 ministries.

(UPDATED) Bulgaria: There will be a Government - Structure and Confirmed Ministers

Kiril Petkov's deputies will be: Asen Vassilev and Kalina Konstantinova from "We Continue the Change", Kornelia Ninova from BSP, Grozdan Karadzhov from “There Is Such a People” and Borislav Sandov from Democratic Bulgaria.

Stefan Yanev, Boyko Rashkov and Nikolay Denkov retain their posts in the caretaker government. The current caretaker Prime Minister will be the Minister of Defense.

/BGNES

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