Wednesday’s papers give prominent coverage to the first steps taken by the caretaker cabinet. Sega newspaper carries a frontpage headline that reads that the first regular cabinet meeting, scheduled for today,has been postponed, so the ministers may have time to inspect what they have been left by the Borissov 2 cabinet and acquaint themselves with the matters at hand. Out of all cabinet ministers, only the Minister of Finance Kiril Ananiev is up to speed, as he was deputy minister in the Borissov cabinet.

The 24 Chassa writes that two deputy police chiefs and one deputy director of the State Agency for National Security were appointed deputy ministers of the interior. At this time the political offices of the Council of Ministers administration has a total of 42 posts, though most of them are vacant; a restructuring is being started of the existing positions, depending on the functional responsibilities of the caretaker governments, 24 Chassa adds.

168 Chassa adds an intriguing detail to the picture – that caretaker Prime Minister Ognyan Gerdzhikov has refused to move to Boyana residence during his term of office. This created problems for the National Security Service because when he assumed office, special security equipment had to be installed at his home address.

Commenting on the constitution of the new cross-party right-wing formation New Republic, Dnevnik newspaper writes that, for the time being it comprises three political parties, three citizen associations as well as politically committed members of the public. Sega quotes one of its co-founders – Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria leader Radan Kunev as saying that there are more than 300 parties in existence in Bulgaria now, but no more than 30 politicians ready to take a stand against the mafia and 15 of them are members of New Republic.

The global Coface risk management company has raised Bulgaria’s risk rating for the first time in 11 years, from B to A4 which is described as an “acceptable risk” Dnevnik writes. Nonetheless, this means that the political and economic outlook is somewhat shaky and a relatively volatile business environment can affect corporate payment behavior.

Compiled by Stoimen Pavlov

English version: Milena Daynova