© Georgi Kozhuharov
Dove Donev
A master in finance and law, an expert in social policy with an army background – this is how the new acting Prime Minister, Galab Donev, can be described.
After none of the political forces to which it was assigned was able to form a government within the 47th Parliament, President Rumen Radev dissolves the 47th National Assembly starting tomorrow (August 2) and schedules elections for October 2, the press service announced of the head of state.
The caretaker government will also be presented on Tuesday at lunch. Who are the other serving ministers, see here.
His career has been spent entirely in the state administration, with two departments clearly delineating in it – social and defense. He develops mainly in the first sphere, but at intermediate stages of his life, when due to a change in power he becomes unemployed, he finds a place in the second. Restrained, meticulous and dry, but also benevolent and cooperative – this is how people who had professional contact with him describe him.
Galab Donev was born in 1967 in Sofia and graduated from the 35th high school with Russian language teaching. Rumen Radev is connected to the president through aviation lines – his first higher education was at the “Georgi Benkovski” Higher Air Force School, but he is 4 years younger than the head of state. Although he states in interviews that he is politically independent and has worked with the social ministers appointed by various governments, it can be seen that his rise through the official ladder coincides with the periods in which representatives of the left have influence in this department.
Donev has been working in the structures of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy since 2001. Initially, he was the director of the Directorate “Working Conditions and Crisis Management” – a department in which his knowledge of social policy and the field of defense is useful. In November 2007, the then Minister Emilia Maslarova (BSP) promoted him to head of the Main Labor Inspectorate, after Totyu Mladenov was released from the staff of GERB. After Mladenov became a minister in 2009 (in the first cabinet of GERB), Donev was replaced “as appropriate”. However, he found a job as deputy chairman in the state agency “State Reserve and Wartime Stocks”.
He returned to the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy as deputy minister at the time when Ivaylo Kalfin (ABV) was minister – already in the second “Borisov” cabinet. Resigned after Kalfin’s withdrawal and not offered to stay. After that, he held the positions of Deputy Director of the Directorate “Administrative and Information Services” and Deputy Director of the Directorate “Internal Audit” of the Ministry of Defense.
He returned to the social sphere, joining the team of President-elect Rumen Radev in 2017 as his secretary for social policies and healthcare. Twice – in 2017 and in 2021 – he was acting minister of labor and social policy (prime minister Ognyan Gerdzhikov), and last year he was deputy prime minister (prime minister Stefan Yanev).
From his property declaration before the KPKONPI, it can be seen that his biggest possession is a house in Sofia with a built-up area of 96 square meters and a 400 square meter yard, acquired through a donation in 1995. The caretaker prime minister has a villa in the village of Ponor and drives an Opel measures. Together with his wife, in 2020 they bought an office of just under 100 square meters for BGN 100,000. In addition, Donev also has a loan of the same amount. He has BGN 15,000 on deposit, as does his wife.
