In the diplomatic missions in Sofia, they are probably already waking up with the question: Good day, who will be the foreign minister of Bulgaria today, do you know?
Perhaps they are also checking whether, in addition to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, acting Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev has not asked to take over any other ministry.
The situation is dynamic, as the universal cliché goes. Along with this, it also has a strong whiff of what has already been seen and experienced – especially from the personnel initiatives of the new cabinet.
And the question of the foreign minister is rather misleading, as a brief review of the twists and turns this storyline has taken over the past week will make clear.
Who said what?
“Minister for a Day and a Half”
“Minister for a day and a half” was called Foreign Minister Stefan Dimitrov, who Glavchev asked to be replaced by Daniel Mitov less than a week after the caretaker government came into force. A proposal for another change followed, apparently with the idea of predisposing President Rumen Radev to the Minister of Agriculture: Georgi Takhov to take the place of Kiril Vatev.
The post of “foreign minister” becomes something of an obsession in domestic politics. After the protracted scandals, in which GERB and PP-DB even in the period before the failed rotation were fighting each other – Denkov should head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or Maria Gabriel should be both prime minister and foreign minister, now a new series is going on with the caretaker government. Glavchev first suggested the consul in Vienna known only to him, then Stefan Dimitrov (who “suddenly” later turned out to be Georgi Dimitrov’s brother and tried to change the country’s foreign policy course, but why and how this was only found out after he was appointed…), and last Monday evening already dissatisfied, he wanted Daniel Mitov. Finally, out of nowhere, he even offered himself.
All the while he maintained the version – with variable but not a high degree of conviction – that all suggestions occur to him and only to him, as a prime minister of a caretaker government independent of all parties.
“Absolute Coincidence”
“Absolute Match” – this is how Borisov explained the strange chronological and logical connection between his speech to the party activists in “Poduyane” with criticisms of actions and inactions of the “minister for a day and a half”, accompanied with a high degree of imperativeness, and the subsequent lightning reaction of Glavchev.
Borisov then announced:
“If Glavchev doesn’t replace him, he won’t have any support. Because he (the foreign minister, b.a.) is changing the doctrine that the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defense and our party had.”
And he added that if the caretaker prime minister does not react, Borissov will make sure that “he complies later”.
The version about the “absolute coincidence” (it’s about some kind of telepathic connection, probably) also criticizes Glavchev, again shortly after Borisov – “Suggestions are entirely mine.”
And he explained how things happened – it just happened that way…
“It just so happened that there were calls from party meetings. Only that they were a consequence of the conversations I had, and this is not difficult to verify.
The delay at 10 p.m. in the evening with my first proposal (for Daniel Mitov – b.r.) was due to the fact that I was waiting for communication with the president, because I think it is correct.”
“Poodle in politics”
President Rumen Radev reacted with doubts about Glavchev’s independent and free will.
“I very much hope that Mr. Glavchev realizes the damage to the cabinet and the overall trust in the electoral process, when he swiftly fulfills the orders of his party chief”. he announced.
“Revealed” – stated Lena Borislavova from PP.
And BSP leader Cornelia Ninova directly called:
“Replace Glavchev, it looks like a poodle in politics.” (Pallotments for political use are very much in vogue lately -bel. ed.). Having added: “Tomorrow Borisov can order Glavchev what the results of the elections will be…”
After which the BSP bravely and not at all pre-election decided, despite the legal absurdity, to demand a vote of no confidence in the official cabinet.
“Apple of discord”
“I don’t want to be the bone of contention” – taka Daniel Mitov announced his refusal on Friday, and before that Radev attacked him that “the deputy chairman of the party (GERB-Bel.ed.) cannot be a foreign minister in a caretaker government”.
“I think that Bulgaria should have a pro-NATO position, as I myself have. I am disappointed with the position of the PP-DB, who stood behind the president. I can now reassure the president – Mr. President, they are with you.
Now the responsibility for the foreign ministry is with President Rumen Radev, he will be responsible for the minister. As for Stefan Dimitrov, his brother – Georgi Dimitrov, I personally fired him from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs twice”he announced, throwing arrows at the PP-DB and deciding to put the coalition on a par with Radev.
Plan B, casting…
Glavchev responded by continuing with the clichéd images that there is no “plan B”.
“I have no intention of proposing a new candidate. No decree was issued. This is not a casting call for foreign ministers, I can’t pull them off my sleeve. I have nowhere to look for a new candidate.” the acting prime minister angrily announced on Friday evening on “Panorama”.
On Saturday afternoon, however, Plan B emerged. Borrowed from Maria Gabriel, or someone else, unrelated to GERB. And although Glavchev claimed for several days that under these circumstances the responsibility remained with Radev, there was already a new proposal – that the acting prime minister himself should also take over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Does Glavchev want to travel too?” – Ninova asked on this occasion, referring to an earlier accusation by GERB that Denkov wanted to be foreign minister after the rotation in order to travel.
Whose office is it?
And in the past week, Borisov spent a lot of time explaining that the official office does not belong to GERB, although a lot of personnel appointments and actions refuted him. While defending the candidacy of his deputy in the party, he announced that half of the ministers in the government belong to PP and DB (who exactly, it was not clear). GERB only had the Minister of Defense, and the party was ready to take responsibility for the Foreign Minister as well, if it was Mitov. And his new refrain turned out to be: That’s what Glavchev thought.
“How do we allow half of the ministers from PP and DB to be in this government. How many people have they cheated. I had to answer them – that I don’t agree, but that’s what Glavchev judged.”
Sarafov as the hidden coalition partner
Another interpretation on the topic “whose office is it” was developed by the co-chairman of the DB Hristo Ivanov. In which GERB plays the role of an innocent child lured by bad companions.
According to Ivanov, the chief prosecutor Borislav Sarafov is “the hidden coalition partner in the caretaker government”
“GERB must decide whether they will allow them to be included in an assembly that Peevski is currently programming with this composition and this hidden architecture of the official government. An assembly formed by Peevski, the prosecutor’s office, Radev and circles around him.
Can you see the outlines of a new majority? GERB has to decide whether to get into it or continue the reform effort. The question is for them”. he added, trying a tactic applied by Borisov in relation to PP and DB – of drawing a dividing line between GERB and Peevski.
Whether such rhetoric in the middle of an election campaign and the opponent’s lead of about 10 percent is working, time will tell.
“Who’s Mafia”
And while Hristo Ivanov addressed his appeals and questions to GERB, from Borisov’s party, with the courtesy of the DPS and others, with several pre-planned cunning moves, they checked the manager of the NHSOC (candidacy of the PP-DB) and left at the head proposals and elected with their votes among series of scandals deputy governor – Momchil Mavrov. Thus, the Treasury and its “modest” over 8 billion budget are also now under the management of the otherwise disempowered – according to Borisov – party.
And a small scene from the “discussion” on the submitted-withdrawn-voted despite the withdrawal resignation of the head of the Treasury. With the eternal question “who is the mafia”.
“Who forced Mihailov to resign?! Someone in this room called him! This means he is addicted. This is how the mafia runs.” Kostadin Angelov, the chairman of the health commission from GERB, reacted violently from the rostrum.
“You’re right to talk about the mafia!”, PP-DB replied to him.
And Kiril Petkov was indignant: “It looks like a dictatorship.”
Antihero
The deposed chief prosecutor and already party leader Ivan Geshev decided to remind himself with the youthful line:
“It took me another two weeks to arrest Boyko Borisov.”
He was well disguised, no doubt. And his words became another example of the well-developed genre of “retrospective heroism” in Bulgarian politics..
On the left front, it is still apparently calm
“In the leadership of the BSP there are green euglenas, slippers, ficuses” – the current MEP from the left, Petar Vitanov, demonstrates his knowledge of single-celled organisms by omitting only amoebas in this enumeration, with which he attacks the social leader and her associates.
And his sharp statement was just one outburst of the unrelenting tension in and around the BSP. Vanya Grigorova, who wants to form a left-wing list for the Eurovote, a new leadership of the Social Party in Sofia, headed by a loyal party functionary, which, according to Ninova, ended the saga in the capital.
However, the Eurovote promises a new round of clashes in the BSP – between pro-Ninovists and the rest.
The 20-thousands
After the four thousand – according to Lena Borislavova, there is bidding, inflation also affects these services. A new term appeared – the 20-thousands. It’s not about kilometers traveled, any records, the conversation is about money and influence.
The new current “term” came from a story by Kiril Petkov to Sasho Dikov in “EuroDikoff” on “Eurocom”.
“Some people come to me as prime minister, a month after I took office, and they say – I will not mention names, you all know them…
So they say, “Good afternoon, we are independent analysts, political scientists, and we want a contract with you of 20,000 per month, and we will say the points on the media that you want. We with the televisions will take care of ourselves.” I ask: 20,000 for what, how so? They say – let your word be heard. Otherwise, what is heard – you say something, your opponent says something, and we analysts repeat the words of opponents until your points of view disappear completely.” he developed the media influence scheme.
“In Bulgaria, the stronger you are, the less they know about you. The opposite of what they say about you. For example, one Borisov – he talks a lot, supposedly decides a lot. But from my point of view he is not free either. Borisov is addicted. Of this permanent power which is in the hands of one man. And this is Mr. Peevski,” he summed up.
The relevant question today is WHO – albeit in its more modest subversion: who will be foreign minister and for how long. Nothing to worry about, everything is peaceful, quieter in the world, right?
