Bulgaria’s caretaker cabinet of Premier Stefan Yanev, appointed by this country’s President Rumen Radev has been in charge for a week now. The caretaker ministers gave a sign that they would make a kind of revision of the former Borissov 3 cabinet, despite the short term of the interim government. The new cabinet replaced senior officials at the Ministry of Interior, the National Revenue Agency and the National Customs Agency.

“People will like the actions of the caretaker cabinet”, contended sociologist Parvan Simeonov and added:

“The majority of people in Bulgaria want to see some a kind of revision and it is already happening. Meanwhile, this caretaker cabinet is a reflection of the social structure. The forces that are against GERB’s government prevail. However, this majority consists of three groups speaking three different languages: a group supporting the Bulgarian Socialist Party, a liberal group around the coalition Democratic Bulgaria and a third segment supporting “There is Such a People” party headed by Slavi Trifonov who say “clear out, all of you”. President Rumen Radev is trying to speak the language of the three groups and the structure of the caretaker cabinet proves that. As President Radev himself said, Bulgaria’s caretaker cabinet consists of ministers from the left political spectrum, the right spectrum and centrists. In this sense, the interim government reflects the expectations of Bulgarians”

“This caretaker cabinet is not like any previous one, because we are in an emergency situation”, commented Metodi Andreev, a former member of parliament at the 38^th National Assembly from the Union of Democratic Forces and a former MP at the 43^rd National Assembly of GERB’s civil quota.

“For the first time in three terms, this country is not governed by the mafia. The authorities must adopt extraordinary measures when a country is emerging from a government of the mafia. I agree with some of the measures of the current caretaker cabinet and have reservations over other measures, but as a whole I approve of the course of the caretaker cabinet”, said Metodi Andreev.

In his words, it is enough for the caretaker cabinet to cause a storm that would show the offences committed in the past.

There are two points of view about what is happening in Bulgaria at present, commented political scientist Dimitar Avramov, author of the book entitled “The New State”.

“GERB party, their former coalition partners and everyone who had access to the state budget regard this process as a purge”, said Dimitar Avramov for the Bulgarian National Radio. We cannot deny everything achieved by former governments. However, in the past 3 or 4 years the state’s resources have been allocated to large businesses. This process is called oligarchization, which means that few people acquire ownership of the public resources. In his view, this is visible to the naked eye and is clear when it comes to loans extended by the Bulgarian Development Bank. The bank, which is expected to support small and medium-sized enterprises, suddenly begins extending loans to large companies. Most of these companies are close to the former government. It doesn’t even matter which exactly are the companies that have received money from the Bulgarian Development Bank. What is important is that the former Premier, ministers and close political and economic circles have given state resources to private benefit.”

We are now witnessing the political effect of the vicious practices and the state’s oligarchization, explained Dimitar Avramov and added:

“Over the next two months, behind-the-scenes talks will be held to form a new status quo that will halt changes in Bulgaria. By change I mean that citizens have equal access to the state”, concluded the political scientist.

Compiled by: Elena Karkalanova/ based on interviews of Horizont channel of the BNR

English version: Kostadin Atanasov