The new caretaker government of Bulgaria with Prime Minister Stefan Yanev was sworn in at a ceremony in the Presidency’s Coat of Arms Hall. President Rumen Radev congratulated the new cabinet ministers for their courage in assuming responsibility in the current difficult situation. The President warned the Council of Ministers there are tough months lying ahead for them, and the legacy of the Boyko Borissov cabinet.

“I am not giving empty promises, I am putting my name, my experience on the line that I shall work with integrity in the interest of society,” caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev said.

President Rumen Radev (L) with caretaker PM Stefan Yanev

Organizing free and fair elections and giving the start to the resolution of the accumulated problems the country is faced with – these were the main priorities he outlined.

“Though it is a caretaker cabinet, it has the ambition of being a government of democratic synergy,” President Rumen Radev said. “It includes people from the left, centre and right, politically neutral professionals, experts, non-affiliated entrepreneurs, proponents of public discontent, figures from the academic circles. It demonstrates what the 45^th National Assembly failed to do – that democrats from the different ends of the political spectrum can overcome their division and rally around the cause of a free and democratic Bulgaria.”

The life of the shortest-lived Bulgarian parliament has not gone to waste, the Bulgarian head of state said further. “We heard opinions that had been passed over in silence for so long, the spirit of parliamentarianism and freedom of speech were brought back to life. The 45^th National Assembly did not live up to people’s expectations of a new government, that is a lesson to all parties ahead of the new election campaign,” Rumen Radev cautioned.

Photos: BGNES