The Bulgarian president Zhelyu Zhelev will probably ask Dobrev to form a new government on Friday, January 10. A BSP plenum will discuss the future cabinet on Sunday, January 12. The parliament in which BSP and their allies have a commanding majority will have to approve the new cabinet within a week after the mandate is given by the president.
The opposition in the meanwhile organizes demonstrations around the country and presses for new elections. They assert that BSP lacks the popular support to introduce the currency board regime proposed by the International Monetary Fund as a last resort to help the national economy and local currency. More than 20,000 demonstrators gathered outside BSP headquarters after Dobrev's approval was announced. Some carried broomsticks with posters saying "We'll clean you out of the country". Others threw snowballs and stale bread at the building. Riot police was guarding the offices. No stoning occurred after the opposition leaders decided to be especially careful about "provocations". Some flowers and firecrackers were thrown at police.
Dobrev acknowledged at a news conference that "the protesters are right. Incomes have fallen and life has become even more difficult. The BSP's rule so far is to be blamed for all this." He pledged to be open for discussions "with all political forces about the problems of the economy and social order". "I plan to carry out radical reform which will boost economic growth," Dobrev said further.
The opposition, however, dismisses the moves of BSP as maneuvers intended to keep them "in power for one day, week or month longer." They point out the inability of Dobrev to tackle the serious crime problems in his capacity of an interior minister during the last several months. Parallel protest demonstrations were organized in other big cities around the country with more to come.
Dobrev, 49, criticized harshly at the recent BSP congress Jean Videnov, the party leader until then and the prime minister of the cabinet in which Dobrev himself served as an interior minister. The main points of Dobrev's criticism were the economic failures of the government (including the waste of resources subsidizing money-loosing state-owned companies) and the wide-spread corruption.
Dobrev is a mining engineer by training. However, he is a career party functionary working in the leadership of the Communist Youth organization Comsomol before the end of the one-party rule in 1989. He later managed the BSP human resources, a post which is often associated with access to sensitive and classified information. Dobrev's critics point out that he lacks experience in economic matters, one of the major problems in Bulgaria now. He is also considered an unpopular choice abroad.
While Dobrev is expected to hand-pick the candidates for his future cabinet and not tolerate much interference in the process, the Bulgarian media are already speculating about the possibilities. According to the daily 24 Hours, the former foreign minister Georgi Pirinski will most probably be proposed as a deputy prime minister responsible for foreign affairs and foreign trade. Irina Bokova who used to be Pirinski's deputy responsible for European integration will possibly head the ministry of foreign affairs. The present head of the parliamentary foreign relations committee Nikolay Kamov is an alternative candidate.
Dobrev is said to have invited the recent presidential candidate and leader of the Civic Alliance for the Republic, an organization which splintered from BSP, Alexander Tomov to become a deputy prime minister again. Little is known about Dobrev's choices to head the economic ministry. The old-time cabinet member Stoyan Alexandrov will likely become a finance minister again.
Ministers from the government of Jean Videnov who have a good chance to stay are: Atanas Paparizov (Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation), Dimitar Pavlov (Defense), Georgi Georgiev (Environment), Lyubomir Dachev (Industry), Rumen Ovcharov (Energy and Energy Resources), Krastyo Trendafilov (Agriculture and Food), and the BSP presidential candidate Ivan Marazov (Culture). They are thought to have a less damaged image.
Mimi Vitkova will probably leave the post of the health care minister. Her possible replacements are the present head of the parliamentary committee on health care Ivan Zanzov, Mladen Grigorov and the fired deputy of Vitkova Petko Uzunov. Nikola Koychev is a possible social minister.
