site.btaGERB-UDF Say President Iotova Does Bear Responsibility for Caretaker Cabinet

Representatives of GERB-UDF said they disagreed with claims that President Iliana Iotova bears no responsibility for the caretaker government. “With regard to the prime minister, we agree that the choice was limited, but as for the composition of the cabinet, we cannot agree that Iotova carries no responsibility,” GERB-UDF Deputy Floor Leader Denitsa Sacheva told reporters in Parliament on Thursday.

After the cabinet took the oath of office, President Iotova said she could not have objections to its composition because it was not her choice. Sacheva countered that, as head of State, Iotova had the opportunity to express her views and make comments on the proposed line-up.

Commenting on the speech of caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gurov after his swearing-in, Sacheva described it as another address built around a moral narrative, noting that such rhetoric should be accompanied by greater restraint. She stressed that the role of a caretaker government was to ensure the smooth functioning of the state until a regular cabinet was formed and to organize fair elections. In her words, a caretaker cabinet should not aim to carry out radical reforms or pursue long-term policies.

According to Sacheva, the government was starting with a “false start” because of the appointment of the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for fair elections, Stoil Tzitzelkov. She argued that a person with such a background did not inspire confidence that fair elections would truly be sought. Earlier in Parliament, Toshko Yordanov from There Is Such a People asked from the rostrum whether Tzitzelkov had previously been arrested. Sacheva added that when moral standards were set so high, the first and strictest requirements should apply to oneself.

Referring to Gurov’s resignation as deputy governor of the Bulgarian National Bank following his appointment as caretaker Prime Minister, Sacheva argued that her colleagues from Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, and Gurov in particular, had repeatedly shown that in their view the law applied to others but not to themselves.

Under the Bulgarian National Bank Act, if a governor or deputy governor has explicitly agreed to be appointed caretaker prime minister, they must submit their resignation.

Sacheva also said that during the swearing-in ceremony, some MPs and parliamentary groups were not present. In her view, seeking cooperation from political parties in Parliament would therefore be difficult. She emphasized that a caretaker cabinet must remain equidistant from all political parties and added that Parliament, in turn, would also keep an equal distance from the caretaker government.