Bulgaria votes in centre-left Cabinet, ending crisis

Bulgaria's Parliament ended a post-election deadlock yesterday by voting in a centre-left government that pledged to tackle reforms for timely EU entry and improve the poor Balkan state's living standards.

The three largest parties to emerge from inconclusive June 25 elections broke a seven-week stalemate on Monday that threatened to spark early polls and certain delay to Bulgaria's plans to join the wealthy bloc in 2007.

"This government needs to answer the people by working hard to fulfil its main aims - economic growth, social responsibility, and EU integration," Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told journalists after being sworn in.

The coalition, backed by Mr Stanishev's Socialists, ex-king Simeon Saxe-Coburg's ousted centrists, and the mostly ethnic Turkish MRF, used its 169 deputies in the 240-seat assembly to approve the Cabinet in a three-stage vote.

Their pact ended a damaging power vacuum that bogged down reforms and prompted warnings from Brussels that the Black Sea state's membership in the Union could be delayed until 2008.

Media have slammed the Socialists and centrists for dragging out the crisis, which coalition insiders attributed mostly to demands from the ex-king's party that he retain a key government role despite losing the June vote.

Banished by the Socialists' predecessors, the Communists, in 1947 at age nine, Saxe-Coburg returned to win 2001 elections. But a failure to end rampant corruption, organised crime and poverty pushed him behind the Socialists.

Now without a Cabinet post or seat in Parliament, he will stay in charge of his party and exert influence through the coalition leaders' council. Analysts expect him to run for President next year against the incumbent, Georgi Parvanov.

Despite public anger at the protracted dispute, analysts said western-oriented Cabinet picks gave the coalition a strong chance of finding cohesion and getting work done.

They said the appointment of pro-market economist Plamen Oresharski as Finance Minister, respected presidential adviser Ivailo Kalfin as Foreign Minister and the retention of Saxe-Coburg's Meglena Kuneva as EU Affairs Minister promised a mixture of continuity and responsible change.

"They have sent a positive signal internationally with this grand coalition. In terms of the formally needed reforms for the EU, this is the only way to go," said Ognian Shentov, head of the Centre for the Study of Democracy.

The Cabinet's first task will be to approve a list of some 30 laws, including a penal procedure code key to fixing the slow and graft-prone judiciary, before the EU's executive issues a report on Bulgaria's readiness to join in October.

"This is the first priority for Parliament," Mr Stanishev said of the code, adding that Parliament's committees would prepare it for the assembly's approval this week.

EU officials say the report is unlikely to recommend whether Bulgaria or its northern neighbour Romania should join in 2007 or 2008, but the two countries have fallen behind in their commitments and chances are rising for a delay.

The government must deal with damage from raging floods, which killed two dozen people and affected a quarter of Bulgaria's eight million people this summer, and will try to solve most Bulgarians' major complaint - low living standards.

Despite growth of over five per cent in recent years, economic output per capita is a third of the EU's and wages average only €150 a month, making Bulgaria the poorest EU member or candidate besides Turkey.

The Socialists have called for a one-off hike to state wages - with the IMF's approval - next year. But in their agreement with Saxe-Coburg's economic liberals, they have toned down a pledge to hike spending on Bulgaria's crumbling social services.