Bulgaria agrees government to rotate prime ministers to fight corruption – POLITICO

A coalition of Bulgarian parties agreed on Monday to form a government tasked with rooting out corruption and led by two rotating prime ministers – one of whom will be former EU Innovation Commissioner Mariya Gabriel.

The coalition’s main objective will be to implement constitutional reforms in the first half of his term, particularly targeting the judiciary in a country plagued by high-level corruption. In recent days, long-running concerns over the role of chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev – centered on whether he is sweeping major mafia cases under the rug – have exploded into a dramatic public spat with the former prime minister. Minister Boyko Borissov.

Bulgaria’s center-right GERB party and anti-corruption alliance led by We Pursue Change and Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) will form a grand coalition government, the two parties announced on Monday, according to local media.

The agreement will last for a year and a half: PP-DB Prime Minister-designate Nikolay Denkov will lead the government for the first nine months, with Gabriel as deputy and foreign minister.

Denkov will then swap seats with Gabriel, who was the GERB party’s choice for the PM.

“The PP-DB will propose a government capable of implementing constitutional reform, fulfilling all requirements for the country’s full EU membership (and) implementing comprehensive judicial reform,” he said. said Denkov on Monday according to Mediapool.

The grand coalition has also been tasked with reintroducing electronic voting, as part of an effort to combat voter fraud.

The deal aims to end years of political instability in Bulgaria, which has held five elections in the past two years.

The GERB party, whose leader Borissov was prime minister from 2009 to 2021, won the last elections in April with 26.5% of the vote.

The PP-DB coalition came in second with 24.9%, paving the way for difficult coalition talks as neither party had a clear parliamentary majority.

Borissov chose Gabriel as the prime minister’s candidate, prompting him to resign as commissioner. But his nomination was initially rejected by the PP-DB, which said it would not support the appointment of any GERB representative in a new government.