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Books on Bulgaria
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Update No: 127 - (19/12/07)
Ministerial changes in the pipeline
In June 2005, Bulgarian voters renewed their National Assembly. The Coalition
for Bulgaria (KzB)—which included the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)—secured
82 seats, followed by the National Movement Simeon II (NDSV) with 53 lawmakers.
In August, these two main parties, along with the Turkish Movement for Rights
and Freedoms (DPS), agreed to set-up a coalition administration with Socialist
leader Sergey Stanishev as prime minister.
On October 23 2007, the government survived a no-confidence motion tabled by the
opposition in the legislature on the basis that it had failed to properly fund
the education system. The 160-61 vote came after a long teacher’s strike, and
was the third no-confidence motion that the Stanishev administration has faced
since taking office.
PM's popularity up
While more people in Bulgaria than previously are content with Stanishev’s
performance, most remain dissatisfied with it, according to a poll by Alpha
Research. 41 per cent of respondents think of the prime minister’s tenure as
positive, up four points since September. When asked: “Do you have a positive
or negative view of Sergey Stanishev’s work as prime minister?” the
responses were as follows:-
Nov. 2007
Sept. 2007 Aug. 2007
Positive 41%
37%
43%
Negative 54%
59%
50%
Source: Alpha Research
Methodology: Interviews with 1,010 Bulgarian adults, conducted in November 2007.
No margin of error was provided.
EC appoints monitors
This year, along with Romania, Bulgaria officially joined the European Union (EU).
The European Commission on December 4 launched the procedure to appoint liaison
officers for Bulgaria and Romania.On November 23, Stanishev said the country is
already seeing the benefits of joining the EU, but issued a warning, saying,
"We still have much, much work to do in this regard. EU membership was seen
as a great opportunity for my country whose people had, for many years, been led
to believe that, once we joined, the EU would ‘take care of us’. There have
been some positive sides of our membership of the EU and growth rate in Bulgaria
is now growing at a faster rate than quite a few of the ‘old’ EU member
states. Despite this, I realize we still have a lot to do, both socially and
economically, to meet public expectations."
A reshuffle, but not a major one, in the offing
Prime Minister Stanishev has vehemently denied reports that major changes in the
government are due in the wake of the internal dissent that jolted the party of
former king Simeon Saxe-Coburg, a junior partner in the coalition government.
"The ruling coalition was set up in order to bear responsibility for
Bulgaria's development and the country is making a sustainable progress,"
Stanishev said. "This is the main priority of the government and the ruling
coalition and it will become reality by the end of its full term," he
added.
Reports emerged in late November that Stanishev and his junior coalition
partners - former king Simeon Saxe-Coburg and ethnic Turkish leader Ahmed Dogan
- have reached an agreement on the replacement of key ministers. The new
ministers were expected to be presented in January.
Simeon Saxe-Coburg, leader of the centrist NMSP party, was believed to have
pressed for the resignations of four of his five ministers - Education Minister
Daniel Valchev, former Justice Minister Anton Stankov, State Administration
Minister Nikolay Vassilev and Euro-Affairs Minister Gergana Grancharova. The
clean-up was expected to sweep out of office Socialist Health Minister Radoslav
Gaydarski and two members of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms
- Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil and Disaster Management Minister Emel Etem.
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