• Wednesday, 25 December 2024

Bulgaria: President announces new caretaker gov't, PM and most ministers keep their office

Bulgaria: President announces new caretaker gov't, PM and most ministers keep their office
Sofia, 16 September 2021 (BTA/MIA) - Bulgarian President Rumen Radev Thursday announced the composition and structure of a new caretaker government that will prepare the November 14 elections for a new Parliament and the presidential elections to be held on the same day. Most ministers from the caretaker government of Prime Minister Stefan Yanev, including Yanev himself, keep their offices. Only three ministers are different: of Economy, of Finance and of Transport. This is the second caretaker government appointed by Radev this year after two consecutive and deeply divided and fragmented national assemblies failed to produce a regular government over the course of a few months. The 45th National Assembly was elected in regular parliamentary elections on April 4 but none of the parties in it was able or willing to form a government, forcing the head of State to dissolve the legislature and appoint a caretaker government until early general elections were held July 11. Those elections, too, did not result in any significant changes or new players in the 46th National Assembly and it, too, failed to form a government. As he presented his second caretaker cabinet at a ceremony in the President's Office, Rumen Radev praised their work so far. "We can look back with satisfaction at the months during which we bore responsibility for Bulgaria's governance," he said. Among the achievements of the previous caretaker cabinet, Radev outlined the record-high economic and income growth and the unprecedented low unemployment rate. He said that the caretaker government held fair elections, drastically reducing vote buying. The [caretaker] government revealed the burdensome bequest [of the previous regular government], the oligarchic governance model, the destruction in the social welfare systems, the unlawfulness in the large infrastructure projects, it stood up against the captured state model, put an end to the extortion, exercised by the previous powerholders against businesses, and put in motion the State's control systems, the President said. PM Yanev said before the oath-taking ceremony that the State cannot afford to function in a permanent political crisis. He said that the months ahead will not be easy and additional efforts will be needed to resolve people's problems, to manage the ongoing crises and upcoming ones. "I believe the next caretaker cabinet will manage with these serious challenges. Our motivation to take office is responsibility. "