"Bulgaria is in a situation where we have to leave the division behind. In order to deal with all the problems before us, we will need a fairly broad consensus. My hope for the president's project is that it will have such a centrist appearance that will bring together many different wings, which of course makes it very difficult".
This was stated to the Bulgarian National Radio by Atanas Pekanov, former Deputy Prime Minister in Rumen Radev's caretaker governments.
He denied having anything to do with Rumen Radev's project:
"I currently have other professional commitments. In the short term, I have not gone into politics.
According to him, every Bulgarian who can contribute in some way to making the institutions stronger and better performing should respond when called upon. For the moment, I have chosen a different path, however, Pekanov noted.
With the changes to the Constitution, the mechanism of the caretaker cabinet has changed a lot - it is generally subordinate to the parties, the former caretaker deputy prime minister emphasized and added that everyone in the "house book" has been elected by parties. For him, the most suitable candidate for caretaker prime minister is Andrey Gyurov, but:
"However, he is in a very difficult situation. I don't even know if he can be elected. In this sense, I don't see a place for me in a future caretaker cabinet. The tool of the official cabinet is different from the one it was years ago".
Over the years, the president has managed to create a relatively wide circle of people with all kinds of understandings around him, commented Atanas Pekanov. According to him, this is good, because in this way he has managed to unite many people around him.
In his words, the creation of Kiril Petkov's government was an important step in the history of Bulgaria:
"Then the left, blue, right, liberals agreed to cooperate in some way, and this reduced a decade-long enmity. In order to solve internal problems, we must overcome this enmity. I hope we are mature enough to do it in the coming months".
Asked about Rumen Radev's potential partners after the elections, Pekanov replied:
"Anyone who is willing to make the necessary and important reforms for a stronger Bulgaria - to remove an octopus whose tentacles are in all institutions".
He defined what happened to Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev as repression.
"We see many institutional mechanisms to control the state from behind. Anyone who is ready to dismantle this thing should be welcome and be part of a future government".
For the necessary majority, for changes in the judicial reform, all partners who are willing should be sought, he believes.
The president had the opportunity for about 2 years, if he wanted, to change the direction of the country, but he did not do it, Pekanov commented on President Radev's foreign policy orientation.
He also commented on Donald Trump's new Peace Council:
"Trump has done a lot of work on the Gaza issue. However, this Peace Council goes beyond the Gaza agreements and aims to become a second alternative to the UN. This is a new structure. The UN has difficulties in resolving some cases, there are structural problems, but this does not mean that we should give up the tool that we have been using for so many decades and make another one that will be solely dominated by the US".
In his words, many of the steps of the American administration are very aggressive, including towards Europe. It is no coincidence that Europe decided to respond to them, he emphasized and recalled the case with Greenland. Against this background, according to him, the act of the resigned Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov "washes away everything that he could have defended". Pekanov explains this only by pressure. He recalled the position of other countries in Europe, which held things back to think.
"This is part of the positioning of the Trump administration. With a lot of aggression, they manage to influence some countries", he commented and noted:
"I don't like this madness of the world at all. You fall to the ground from two chairs - that's what it seems to me will happen".
We need to have a little more pride and where there is no need to push each other, there is no need to push each other, Atanas Pekanov was categorical and made a connection with the Magnitsky sanctions and the pressure on Zhelyazkov.
Regarding the money under the PVU, the former acting deputy prime minister commented:
"When you fail to do something, they continue to punish you further. In addition to the 350 million that we will certainly lose, we will lose at least that much more from the next two payments, which will again be penalties for not doing the job. And we will most likely lose a lot more. Things are very bad on the PVP. There are many reforms that have been rolled back. 2.5 billion euros are at risk not only because of the CCP, but also because of other things, but mainly because of this. The rule of law was a big and important requirement of Europe. We did not do enough work on it".