A political scandal with an academic flavor has taken shape in the field of higher education. It is related to the fact that the Minister of Education and Science Prof. Georgi Valchev was dismissed from his post by a decision of the General Assembly of Alma Mater held today only today, BTA reported.
In this way, he should have combined the two posts for the period from his election as Minister on May 8 until the acceptance of his application for dismissal.
Prof. Valchev, meanwhile, appointed his acting deputy - Assoc. Prof. Parvan Parvanov, who during the period of holding the position managed to grow his career to professor under very controversial circumstances, writes "Dnevnik".
The acting rector himself surprisingly also ran for the vacant position along with four other competitors, but was not allowed to vote after a decision by the General Assembly of the university.
Professor Valchev also participated in the work of the supreme governing body of Sofia University, but not as a guest of the forum, but as a participant with the right to vote. This is because, although he resigned as rector, he did not lose his status as a professor at his Faculty of Philosophy.
In this way, he voted for the election of his successor to the position, and according to the requirements of the law, he will subsequently have to conclude a management contract with the winning candidate in his capacity as minister.
It is not clear whether, as a minister, he also terminated his own management contract after his resignation, which he had previously concluded and fulfilled in his role as rector with a previous minister.
The Constitution and the law are yet to be interpreted as to when Prof. Valchev's term as rector ends - from the moment of his resignation, from the moment of termination of his management contract by the minister (in this case, probably by himself) or the moment of voting on the resignation by the body that elected him - the General Assembly of Sofia University. It is meeting for the first time since the election of the government only today, and the doubts about the existence of conflicts of interest and incompatibility for holding the position are yet to be commented on by lawyers and politicians.