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Southeast Europe
May 5, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 15
ter of defence, according to an announcement on VMRO's website. The ministers of economy and environment will also be from the United Patriots.
A number of the new ministers have kept their posts from the last regular government headed by GERB. These include the ministers of finance, transport, energy, tourism, as well as youth and sports.
Tomislav Donchev, Ekaterina Zaharieva and Lilya- na Pavlova were members of the previous GERB- led cabinet too and will remain in the cabinet but in new positions.
Former parliament speaker and presidential can- didate Tsetska Tsacheva will be new the minister of justice. The new minister of agriculture, Rumen Porozhanov, is a former head of the State Fund Agriculture. Three months ago, caretaker Minister of Agriculture Hristo Bozukov demanded Porozh-
anov’s resignation with unclear motives, 24 chasa daily commented.
Former Minister of Regional Development Pavlova will now be in charge of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU next year. Nikolay Nankov, the new minister of regional development and public works, is a former deputy minister in the same ministry. The new Minister of Economy Emil Karanikolov has been head of Bulgaria’s privatisa- tion agency over the past seven years.
In the early parliamentary elections held on March 26, GERB won 95 seats in the 240-seat parliament. Its main opponent, the Bulgarian So- cialist Party (BSP), won 80 seats. The United Pa- triots came third with 27 MPs, the predominantly ethnic-Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) won 26 and the centre-right Volya party was last with 12 seats.
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