Who are the ministers in the “Glavchev” government? – 2024-04-06 20:36:02

“I tried to have experts in the cabinet, to have continuity and to be politically balanced. The main task of the caretaker government will be to guarantee fair elections”declared the nominee for acting prime minister, Dimitar Glavchev, who on Friday presented the draft composition of his cabinet to President Rumen Radev and the parliamentary parties.

Formally speaking, the combination of cadres who worked in different governments and affiliated with different parties gives the impression of balance. In reality, however, we are talking about people who over the years have proven their loyalty to GERB and DPS, and in particular to its co-chair Delyan Peevski.

The clearest sign that the cabinet belongs to Peevski and Boyko Borisov is Glavchev’s decision to leave as interior minister Kalin Stoyanov, whose presence in the “Denkov-Gabriel” government was among the main reasons for the failure of the rotation and leading to new elections and caretaker government.

Lyudmila Petkova, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance

The new Acting Deputy Prime Minister and Finisterial Minister Lyudmila Petkova is a long-time director of the Tax Policy Directorate at the Ministry, appointed to the post in 2010. Prior to that, she has solid professional experience in management positions at the National Revenue Agency.

She was deputy minister of finance several times – in the “Oresharski” government (June 2013 – August 2014), as well as in three caretaker governments appointed by President Rumen Radev – “Stefan Yanev 2” (September – December 2021) .), “Dove Donev 1” (August 2022 – February 2023) and “Dove Donev 2” (February – June 2023). Over the years, she has worked well with ministers from various political forces.

Violeta Koritarova, Minister of Regional Development and Public Works

For the first time, the minister of regional development, albeit an official one, will be a specialist in geodesy – Violeta Koritarova.

Koritarova headed the Agency for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre in June 2018, when the Minister of Regional Development was Nikolay Nankov (GERB). Her appointment at the time was surprising given the fact that the head of the agency at that time was Mikhail Kirov, who was close to Nankov.

Violeta Koritarova came from the Ministry of Agriculture, and those familiar with her appointment claimed at the time that it was done at the insistence of the then deputy, now co-chairman of the DPS and sanctioned for corruption under the global “Magnitsky” law, Delyan Peevski.

Koritarova’s name was mentioned in 2020, days before the co-chairman of “Democratic Bulgaria” Hristo Ivanov and Ivaylo Mirchev “debarked” by water on the beach in front of the summer residence of the honorary chairman of the DPS Ahmed Dogan on Rosenets. The then Minister of Tourism, Marijana Nikolova, from the United Patriots quota, established the obvious, that the sand in front of Dogan’s residence is not a level, as it appears in the cadastral maps, but a beach. Marijana Nikolova asked the then executive director of the Cadastre Agency, Violeta Koritarova, to reflect this on the maps. To this day, it is not clear whether the future regional minister did this. To this day, there is no answer to this question posed in 2020 by the MRRD.

The main task of Violeta Koritarova when she was appointed as the head of the agency was to completely complete the transformation of the map of the restored property. She herself promised to cope with this task by March 2020.

In July 2023, the Minister of Regional Development Andrey Tsekov (PP) dismissed Violeta Koritarova due to delayed reforms and appointed engineer Strahil Tanev in her place.

The future Minister of Regional Development, Violeta Koritarova, is an expert with experience in the field of geodesy and geoinformation systems, investment planning, land properties and registers, with a long experience in the Geodesy Agency. She also worked in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Education and Science. Koritarova has a master’s degree in geodesy, photogrammetry and cartography from the University of Architecture, Construction and Geodesy in Sofia. She has a number of professional qualifications from the Netherlands, Austria and Germany, according to an official announcement from the Ministry of Land and Infrastructure, when she was appointed to the post of head of the Geodetic Agency.

Kalin Stoyanov, Minister of Internal Affairs

Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov will keep his post during the interim government. This is proposed by the future Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev. His nomination was made with the justification that otherwise the policemen would hardly be demotivated to participate in the organization of the elections.

Atanas Zapryanov, Minister of Defense

He is the current Deputy Minister of Defense. Zapryanov has been in the system for a long time and is considered close to GERB.

Zapryanov is also a former military representative of the Bulgarian Army in the Delegation of the Republic of Bulgaria to NATO. He was also a representative of the Chief of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Army in the Military Committee of NATO and in the Military Committee of the European Union.

From 2010 to 2013, he was an adviser in the office of the Minister of Defense in the first government of Boyko Borisov.

Zapryanov was a deputy minister in two governments – from July 2016 to January 2017 and from May 2017 to April 2021.

A new iconic name in the government is that of Vladimir Malinov, who has been proposed as Minister of Energy. He has been at the head of the state-owned gas operator Bulgartransgaz (BTG) since 2018, where he previously headed the legal department. Under his leadership, the controversial continuation of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline through Bulgarian territory to Serbia was built at high speed in 2021. A few days ago, the project became the subject of an investigation by a parliamentary commission of inquiry. Separately, since last fall, the prosecutor’s office has been inspecting the construction site for violations of underhanded contracts in public procurement.

However, Malinov is also the initiator of the Vertical Gas Corridor project from Greece through Bulgaria and Romania to Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Ukraine. The project is supported by the USA and Brussels.

Since 2019, he has been the chairman of the board of BTG’s subsidiary “Gas Hub Balkan”, and since 2021 he has been on the board of a company which at the end of April launched the liquefied gas terminal near Alexandroupolis and in which BTG has a share of 20 percent. He also participates in the leadership of the European Network of Gas Transmission System Operators – ENTSOG.

Now a competition should be announced for his position as director of the gas operator.

Rosen Karadimov, Minister of Innovation and Growth

Rosen Karadimov will enter the Ministry of Innovation from the supervision of the department’s state-owned Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB). It was along the revelations about BBR, which became known in the past as the “money box” of businessmen close to GERB and DPS, that in 2021 Kiril Petkov rose to the political firmament as Minister of Economy. In November 2022, however, the caretaker government at the time clashed with supervisors appointed by Petkov and made strange reshuffles in BBR supervision, and “We continue the change” warned that a return to the “GERB model” at the state-owned bank was possible.

The newly appointed supervisor in 2022 at that time had practically no experience in bank management. A large part of his career is connected with BSP. He was a deputy in the Great National Assembly (1990-1991) and in the 37th National Assembly (1994-1997). After that, he became part of the “Bulgarian Euroleft” of Alexander Tomov and Nikolay Kamov.

Rosen Karadimov is considered one of the closest advisers in the cabinet of former Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev (triple coalition government). During this period, his influence on political life was significant, as judged by individual statements of various public figures. For example, the former owner of KTB Tsvetan Vassilev, accused of draining the bank, has repeatedly mentioned in interviews about the “Peevski-Karadimov tandem”, which exerted a strong influence on the digitalization of the airwaves. In an interview for “Trud” in 2009, Vesela Lecheva stated: “It may sound harsh to you today, but two people ruled the state at the end of our mandate – Delyan Peevski and Rosen Karadimov. I think no one should be surprised.” .

However, Karadimov himself has always denied such connections. “This is absolutely false and I have had no relationship with Delyan Peevski. I only know him to the extent that I was a consultant in the government where he was the deputy minister of disasters and accidents,” Karadimov answered to “Capital”.

During the “Stanishev” cabinet, the councilor’s name was involved in the “Hoheger” lobbying affair. In the past, Karadimov worked together with the current deputy governor of the BNB, Petar Chobanov, at the expert Institute for New Economic Progress.

Petko Nikolov, Minister of Economy

The longest-serving head of the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC), with a 13-year mandate from 2002 to 2016, is the new Minister of Economy. Petko Nikolov was also the chairman of the Patent Office, the Privatization Agency, and the National Company “Industrial Zones”.

Petko Nikolov was born in Botevgrad in 1957, according to the website of the Patent Office. He holds a Master’s degree in “Law” from the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.

He specialized in currency, customs and tax control, as well as criminal law sciences. He has a master’s degree in finance from VTU “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” and a doctorate in economics and management – intellectual property from UNSS.

Since 1988, he has been a member of the Sofia Bar Association and worked as a lawyer. In 2001, he was appointed chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Privatization Agency. He speaks English and Russian.

Maria Pavlova, Minister of Justice

Acting Deputy Chief Prosecutor Maria Pavlova has been proposed as Minister of Justice. In the past, she has already held this position, as well as a deputy in the same ministry.

Kiril Vatev, Minister of Agriculture and Food

Agrarian Minister Kiril Vatev retains his position as Minister of Agriculture and Food. Literally while the names of the already announced cabinet were being mentioned, it became clear that he was preparing a solution for the saga with the private company of “Captain Andreevo”. BGN 10 million was secured for an out-of-court settlement, and later it became clear that the money would also be used to buy the equipment of the private laboratory of Eurolab 2011.

He himself comes from business as the founder of a large meat processing company. Before entering the business, he was known as the coach of the national youth wrestling team in Levski Spartak. He himself graduated from the National Sports Academy with a “Freestyle Wrestling” profile (1978 – 1982).

In 2005, he became the chairman of the newly formed business party FAGO – Federation of Active Civil Society. The organization was then founded on April 9, with its members leaving the Federation of Free Business (FSB) created on March 27 with ideologues Dimitar Lujev and banker Emil Hersev. Vatev was also involved in the FSB, but the business decided to secede from it 2 weeks after its creation. The motive of the businessmen was that they felt used by the politicians.

Georgi Gvozdeikov, Minister of Transport

Gvozdeikov is a representative of the PP and remaining in the official cabinet will cost him his membership in the party, “Continuing the change” announced.

Galya Kondeva, Minister of Health

She is the director of the hematology hospital in Sofia and the former head of the drug directorate at the NHSOC. Dr. Kondeva also has a long-standing practice as a doctor with two specialties – “Internal Diseases” and “Clinical Hematology”.

Galin Tsokov, Minister of Education

Before becoming a minister in the cabinet of Nikolay Denkov, Galin Tsokov was a teacher at the Pedagogical Faculty of Plovdiv University “Paisiy Hilendarski”. He is a professor of educational administration.

Under his tenure as minister, an opportunity was given to resit matriculation exams in order to raise the grade.

From 5 to 15 days per school year, the days on which students can be absent from class for family reasons were also increased.

The long-awaited competitions for principals in schools in the country were also organized. The first batch was for about 300 educational institutions, and new principals were elected in about 200 of them.

Also, in the months in which Tsokov was minister, the bad results of Bulgarian students from the international PISA tests came out.

Valentin Mudrov, Minister of Electronic Government

In practice, this is GERB’s second attempt to broadcast for Minister Valentin Mundrov. The first and unsuccessful one was with the full folder proposed by Maria Gabriel to President Rumen Radev during the rotation attempts. However, it turned out that 11 of the ministers proposed by Gabriel were not agreed with PP-DB.

In fact, he is currently the deputy minister of e-government from the GERB quota.

During the rotation negotiations, he was proposed as a potential new minister in the place of Alexander Yolovski, whose removal was demanded by the PP-DB. However, GERB was of the position that Yorovski should remain in office. Yolovski himself made a big splash due to the huge scandal with the cancellation of electronic voting in the first round of local elections.

Valentin Mundrov has over 20 years of experience in the field of information technologies – he was an IT consultant at the National Health Insurance Fund, director at the “Software Integration” Directorate at “Information Services”, an expert at the Customs Agency, as well as at the Ministry of Health.

In the Ministry of Health, he was responsible for the National Health Electronic System, which is the module related to electronic health care.

Valentin Mundrov has a master’s degree in “Industrial Engineering” at the Technical University – Sofia, he also graduated in “Electronic Business and Electronic Management” at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. He also holds numerous certificates in the field of information technology.

Ivaylo Ivanov, Minister of Labor and Social Policy

Ivaylo Ivanov, nominated for the position of Minister of Labor and Social Policy, has been the head of the National Social Security Institute (NSI) since 2017, and his mandate will expire in 2021.

He was nominated as the head of NOI by GERB, but almost all deputies in the hall voted for him – only one abstained.

While Ivanov is minister, NOI will be managed by Deputy Governor Vesela Karaivanova, who has been in this post since 2005.

Ivanov has been in the social system for 20 years. He was deputy head and then head of the Social Assistance Agency. Before heading the National Institute of Social Sciences, he was deputy minister in Boyko Borisov’s second cabinet, while Zornitsa Rusinova was social minister. He remained in office under the acting minister, Galab Donev, as well as under Biser Petkov, who led the ministry during the third cabinet of GERB.

Nayden Todorov, Minister of Culture

Nayden Todorov was a caretaker minister in the last caretaker government appointed by Rumen Radev. After the arrival of the regular cabinet of Nikolay Denkov, Todorov returned to the post of director of the Sofia Philharmonic. Nayden Todorov is a musician, composer and conductor. He was also the director of the Ruse Opera.

Evtim Miloshev, Minister of Tourism

“The person Evtim Miloshev, who will be appointed as Minister of Tourism, probably understands tourism, because he must be a tourist” – this is how the leader of the party “There is such a people” (ITN) Slavi Trifonov commented on Facebook proposals for an official minister of tourism producer.

“Listening to the comments about the new caretaker government, I found with great surprise that my name was present as a person who has a caretaker minister. On the one hand, this surprised me, and when I found out who the commentators were referring to, I sincerely laughed,” Trifonov also wrote about his former partner whom he removed from “Slavi’s Show” for “objective reasons”.

“Since then he has had absolutely nothing to do with anything I do. But absolutely nothing to do with it. So he can be Minister of Tourism as well as President of the Galaxy.”Slavi Trifonov ends his post.

When announcing his name, Acting Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev said that he has personally known Evtim Miloshev for many years and wherever he worked, he did well.

“Do you have a representative in the government” – with these words, President Rumen Radev gave the floor to the representatives of ITN in the presidency during the presentation of the ministers from the caretaker government.

“If the joke is with Evtim Miloshev – no, we don’t. We broke up with him a long time ago,” said the chairman of the ITN parliamentary group Toshko Yordanov. He added that he could tell many things about Evtim Miloshev, but he would refrain “because you won’t like it”.

55-year-old Evtim Miloshev is a surveyor by education, and a producer by profession. In his career, he went from reporter to editor to screenwriter and producer.

While still a student at the University of Architecture, Construction and Geodesy, he appeared in a competition for the show “Ku-ku”, where in 1990 he started working as a reporter. “The Channel”, “Hushov” and “Slavi’s Show” followed, and in 2004 he became a producer of the game “Vote of Confidence”.

After leaving Slavi Trifonov’s team in 2006, together with actor Lubo Neikov and screenwriter Ivan Spasov, they founded the production company – “Dream Team” (Dream Team Productions). A year later, they launched the comedy show “The Comedians” on bTV.

In 2012, Evtim Miloshev together with the producers Gabriel Georgiev and Ivan Spasov made “Dream Team Films” (Dream Team FIlms). Since then, his team has worked on dozens of television formats and series, including “The Tree of Life”, “Survivor”, “Capitalians in More”, “Devil’s Throat” and others.

In 2016, the then Minister of Culture Vezhdi Rashidov (GERB) presented Evtim Miloshev with the highest honor of the Ministry of Culture – the “Golden Age” award for his contribution to the development of Bulgarian culture and national identity – “Golden Age”.[3]. Three years later, the producer was awarded the badge of honor of the head of state. The award was given to Evtim Miloshev for his significant contribution to two charitable initiatives under the patronage of President Rumen Radev.

Georgi Glushkov, Minister of Sports

The proposal for acting Minister of Sports is Georgi Glushkov – a legend in basketball. He will stand at the head of Bulgarian sports months before the Olympics in Paris this summer.

The highlight of his sports career is that Georgi Glushkov is not only the first Bulgarian, but also the first Eastern European to play in the “alien” National Basketball Association (NBA) of the USA and Canada, and that was during the time of socialism.

In 1985, he was selected #148 in the NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns, but stayed only one season. Recorded 49 games with an average of 4.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.7 assists per contest. According to media reports, Glushkov failed to establish himself in the NBA because he became addicted to fast food. The managers of his team doubt that he uses steroids. In addition to Bulgarian teams, he also played in the championships of Italy and Spain.

Glushkov’s name has not been involved in scandals, he is known as a consensus figure, always a positive and open-minded person. It is hardly a coincidence that since 2011 he has been the president of the Bulgarian Basketball Federation. Since heading the federation, the Bulgarian national team has played twice at EuroBasket (2011 and 2020) and is now playing qualifiers for the championship in 2025.

Until now, the 64-year-old Glushkov has not been in politics and is not officially known to be tied to any political party.