Bulgaria appoints new caretaker government with sudden foreign minister switch

7 months ago 29

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev appointed the new caretaker government on Tuesday, which included a last-minute change in the foreign minister’s post, which will remain in place until early elections in June.

On Tuesday, Dimitar Glavchev, prime minister of the new caretaker government and former deputy of the country’s largest party GERB (EPP), nominated Bulgarian Ambassador to Montenegro Stefan Dimitrov as foreign minister in a last-minute change from Ivaylo Tsenov, a Bulgarian consul in Austria.

Bulgarian media criticised Tsenov’s nomination, pointing out that he is a relatively unknown name in diplomatic circles. On Tuesday, Glavchev announced that he had declined the post “for family reasons.”

“I will not give in to provocations, I will not enter into petty-mindedness, I will not allow myself to be drawn into pre-election passions and personal ambitions,” the new prime minister said.

“The government must be a guarantor of stability. We cannot allow our country to be drawn into a constitutional crisis, statehood cannot not be protected and be hostage to party ambitions and desires,” said Glavchev.

In June, Bulgarians will vote in the sixth parliamentary elections in the last three years, as the country once again slides into a political crisis.

“The responsibility (for the caretaker government) is definitely not mine, but Mr. Glavchev and that of parliament,” Radev said on Tuesday.

The new Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Lyudmila Petkova, announced that the new government will maintain the state’s previous priorities, which are related to the pursuit of full Schengen membership, entry into the Eurozone and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Petkova commented that Bulgaria would sign a partnership agreement with the European Commission on the communication and information strategies for introducing the euro in the country by 12 April.

The Bulgarian government has already approved and accepted the agreement and has prepared a draft law on introducing the euro, which will be subject to public debate until 24 April and then a final vote in parliament.

Former finance minister Assen Vassilev said that one of the main tasks facing the country was the adoption of the euro and that the caretaker government would have to continue its efforts.

The only technical obstacle to Bulgaria joining the eurozone from 1 January 2025 remains inflation, which is around 1% above the eurozone average.

Bulgaria expects to meet this condition by November and adopt the euro by 1 July 2025 at the latest.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)