Bulgarian Politics: The Caretaker Government Officially Took Office Today

Politics | August 2, 2022, Tuesday // 13:41|  views

The new caretaker government @BGNES

The caretaker government, which was appointed by President Rumen Radev, took office today. The ministers were sworn in at an official ceremony in the presidency.

"You have the responsibility to deal with challenges that were spared for the previous three Cabinets. You are taking responsibility for the management of Bulgaria at a difficult time for the country. Public fatigue from the sharp political opposition, swirling inflation and impoverishment, high fuel prices and energy bills, lack of natural gas for the winter and a heavily indebted public supplier, regulatory blockage and crumbling road network, increasing protests of various branch organizations, lack of prepared laws under the Recovery Plan and stalled judicial reform and important activities for our full integration in EU," President Rumen Radev said during the inauguration ceremony.

Your main challenge is related to security”, he added.

The risk of the war spreading to new territories is real, and your first priority should be to prevent the country from being drawn into the conflict, to prevent risks to national security, to speed up work on the modernization of our military forces.

A direct consequence of the war is the global energy crisis. The cabinet and subsequent governments must be guided by two important priorities - security of supply and price of energy carriers. At the center of your activity should be the interests of the ordinary consumer and the Bulgarian economy.

Another devastating consequence of the war was the food crisis. It is an important priority for you to ensure a clear horizon for farmers, food security of the country and control of prices.

Our society expects to hear the whole truth about the construction of the ‘Hemus’ highway, the repair of the dams and other major corruption projects. It also expects urgent actions to ensure safe traffic on the roads despite the regulatory blockade”, Radev also said.

You need to develop the missing laws under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan and take the last decisive step for Bulgaria's membership in the Schengen Area.

The main task is the organization of the elections”, added the president.

Radev introduced the Acting Minister - Prime Minister Galab Donev. “In all his activities, he has demonstrated qualities and competence for responsible state positions”, Radev said.

"At such a moment, one usually expresses gratitude for the trust and declares readiness to deal with the enormous responsibility that the post of Prime Minister is connected with. And I will do it, because I know from personal experience that the responsibility of the people and the trust of the people they keep you from losing your balance, no matter how high up in the management hierarchy you are," Donev said.

"I don't lose my balance from the height and I don't look for the loophole of the law," he said and thanked the president for "entrusting him with the management of the country in a time burdened by crises."

"I firmly assert that the caretaker government is not a B team in the management of the state. And this is not some marketing trick of mine, this is what the basic law judges," he said.

The 100th government will not have 100 days of tolerance. We have the difficult task of looking for solutions to the inherited crises without having the mechanisms of a working National Assembly at our disposal.

He stated that he expects work from the ministers in the following areas:

- organizing and conducting fair elections;

- restoration of trust between the institutions that govern the state;

- finding a way out of all bequeathed crises;

- removal of political tension;

- continuation of work on the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

The fourth caretaker government of the head of state preserves the structure of the regular cabinet and four deputy prime ministers will stand next to the caretaker prime minister - Lazar Lazarov, who will also be responsible for social policy. Hristo Alexiev, who will be deputy prime minister for economic policies and minister of transport and communications. Ivan Demerdzhiev as Deputy Prime Minister for Public Order and Security and Acting Minister of Internal Affairs and Atanas Pekanov, who returns as Deputy Prime Minister for European Funds Management.

Each of the ministers will individually hand over the department they managed to their successor.

A large part of the names in the new cabinet were part of the previous three caretaker governments appointed by Rumen Radev. Galab Donev was a part of all of them as his department was social policy. Among the other familiar names in the cabinet are Krum Zarkov, who heads the Ministry of Justice. Vesela Lecheva, who gave up the fight for the 47th parliament because of a conflict with Kornelia Ninova, as well as Prof. Velislav Minekov, who again takes over the Ministry of Culture.

Check the full list of caretaker ministers and their biographies here.

Check former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov’s final video address to the nation here.

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/BNT, Photos @Desislava Kulelieva

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Tags: Radev, government, caretaker

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