Bulgaria’s “new” caretaker cabinet takes oath before October 27 early elections

The second Dimitar Glavchev caretaker cabinet took the oath of office in the National Assembly on August 27, hours after President Roumen Radev signed the decree naming October 27 as the date of Bulgaria’s next early parliamentary elections.

The special sitting of the National Assembly for the swearing-in, called during Parliament’s recess, lasted just eight minutes, including the oath-taking and playing of the Bulgarian and European Union anthems.

Glavchev will head an interim government with just three personnel changes compared with the one that took office in April and that subsequently underwent minor changes.

Controversial figure Kalin Stoyanov is out as caretaker Interior Minister, but his successor in that portfolio, national police chief Atanas Ilkov, has been described by some parliamentary groups as similarly serving Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) co-leader Delyan Peevski.

Peevski said last week that were Stoyanov excluded from the next caretaker cabinet, he would place him on his list of parliamentary election candidates.

The other changes in the second Glavchev cabinet are deputy foreign minister Ivan Kondov taking over the Foreign Minister portfolio, until now held by Glavchev, and Transport Ministry legal department head Krassimira Stoyanova taking over the Transport Minister portfolio from Georgi Gvozdeikov.

The October 27 elections will be the seventh time in just more than three years that Bulgarians elect a legislature. Only two of those elections produced an elected government, neither of which served a full term in office.