Bulgaria’s new government to adopt motto of ‘zero tolerance for corruption’

A motto of “zero tolerance for corruption” and hard lines on energy prices, vaccination, and judicial reform have been announced by the new coalition government of Prime Minister-designate Kiril Petkov from the coalition “Change Continues”. Parliament is set to vote on the coalition on Monday.

On Saturday, President Rumen Radev said that if the new ruling coalition does not achieve decisive remedial changes in the judiciary in the first 100 days, the new coalition will not win the battle for the rule of law. The next government of the country includes four parties – “Change Continues”, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, “There is such a people”, and “Democratic Bulgaria”.

Prime minister-designate Kiril Petkov announced that the change of the leadership of the anti-corruption commission would be its first task because it does not require a special majority of two-thirds of deputies.

The second task is to replace Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev. This needs a change in the Supreme Judicial Council, which requires a sizeable parliamentary majority that the ruling coalition does not have.

“One of the most important things at the moment will be to control the price of electricity because electricity bills put a lot of pressure on businesses. We will not allow electricity prices to increase for household consumers. The second step is to tackle the COVID-19 crisis in the long run. From now on, we will try to attract the biggest experts in the field and inform Bulgarian citizens why vaccination is so important”, announced Petkov.

After EURACTIV revealed the false claims made in the CV of Dimitar Gardev, foreign minister candidate from the “There is such a people” party, former presidential expert Teodora Genchovska replaced Gardev.

Genchovska is not known for her foreign policy stance, and it remains to be seen what line she will take toward North Macedonia. The leading formation in the government “Change continues” insists on intensifying negotiations but does not guarantee Skopje a quick lifting of Bulgaria’s veto on opening accession talks.

(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)