Bulgaria names two new ministers

Bulgaria names two new ministers

The leaders of the three-way coalition met Friday following a series of high level resignations over the last few months.

Discussing the long-awaited government changes were Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Simeon Saxcoburggotski of the Movement for Simeon the Second (NDSV), and Ahmed Dogan of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party (DPS), which represents Bulgaria’s ethnic Turks.

The appointments will preserve the balance between the three coalition partners, with the Socialist Party retaining the economy and energy portfolio and NDSV keeping the justice ministry.

The two appointments will be introduced to and voted on in parliament on Wednesday, said the governement`s press release.

Dimitrov, an MP from BSP and head of the parliamentary commission on budget and finance, will replace Rumen Ovcharov. He resigned as economy minister at the beginning of May amid a corruption scandal.

Tacheva, a former deputy justice minister, will replace Georgi Petkanov. He announced he was stepping down from his post at the end of May due to fatigue.

Friday’s announcement fell short of the government reshuffle expected since the beginning of June. It was anticipated that more than the two appointments would be announced at Friday’s meeting. However, the coalition parties’ leaders decided to postpone filling the remaining ministerial positions.

In addition to Ovcharov and Petkanov leaving the government, five deputy ministers have stepped down since May.

Kornelia Ninova, BSP’s deputy economy and energy minister and Delyan Peevski, DPS’s disasters and accidents deputy minister, were fired by Stanishev at the beginning of May in the midst of a corruption scandal.

Georgi Kadiev, BSP’s deputy finance minister resigned soon afterwards, citing disagreements with the Minister Plamen Oresharski. Ana Karaivanova, BSP’s deputy justice minister and Ina Kileva, NDSV’s deputy minister of culture, also resigned in June.