site.btaNew Calls for Two Candidates for Central Bank Governor’s Office to Pull Out

The impending election of a new governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) has caused a deep rift in the government coalition and calls were renewed Friday for the two candidates to withdraw. Hristo Ivanov, co-leader of the power-sharing Democratic Bulgaria, said the talks on a new central bank governor should start from scratch to make it possible to find a nominee that would unite the ruling majority and, possibly, get support from the entire Parliament. “There is no way this could happen without the withdrawal of the present candidate,” he said.

The only two candidates in the ongoing procedure have been nominated by parties in the ruling coalition: Andrey Gurov by Continue the Change, the party of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, and Lyubomir Karimanski by There Is Such a People of entertainer-turned-politician Slavi Trifonov.

The two parties with own nominees, however, are determined to see them through what has turned out to be a testing procedure. Continue the Change’s deputy Mihal Kambarev said that they have a very strong candidate and are not going to pull him out. “The coalition looks shaken, but these are normal processes. When we came [to power], we clearly vowed to find the best professionals. We have two candidates, and it is for Parliament to make the final decision,” said Kambarev. 

Stanislav Balabanov (There Is Such a People MP), too, said that his party remains firmly behind its candidate. “The decision will be made in Parliament’s plenary hall next week in a democratic manner. We are not going to leave the government coalition or sulk, if the other candidate wins,” he said. 

THE PROCEDURE, THE ODDS, THE CONTROVERSIES

Gurov himself denied that there is tension over the BNB governor’s office. He said Karimanski and himself have presented their concepts, were heard by the parliamentary budget committee, and talks are currently underway with the parliamentary groups as each candidate tries to secure support for himself. 

To be elected either of the candidates will need the votes of half of those present in the plenary plus one. There has to be at least 121 MPs for a Parliament sitting to be valid, which means that 61 deputies are enough to secure the election.

It is already clear that Gurov will be backed by his own Continue the Change (67 seats) and Democratic Bulgaria (16 seats), and, possibly, by the Socialists (26 seats), but they are yet to decide. Karimanski is only sure to get the 25 votes of his party. 

The opposition has not said how they would vote. 

One report (Capital Weekly) of the hearing of the two candidates by the budget committee, however, said that a pro-Karimanski majority is looming in the legislature. “Attacks on Andrey Gurov from There Is Such a People, GERB and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, and favourable treatment by them for Lyubomir Karimanski was what dominated the three-hour hearing,” the weekly wrote.

Neither candidate is free of controversy, and both have denied any wrongdoing.

GERB have put to question the authenticity of Gurov’s PhD diploma from Vienna University. They suspected fraud because the diploma was registered just before the hearing at the budget committee and because it included financial analyses for 2008 and 2012, while the diploma was dated 2005. Gurov has explained repeatedly that there was nothing wrong when he registered his diploma in Bulgaria and that he updated his thesis several times after it was originally published.

Continue the Change have repeatedly made references to a 2015 fraud case involving Investbank in which the bank paid 1.2 million leva to a sham partner in a company rather than the real owner. At that time Karimanski was Investbank Executive Director and personally signed the papers for the fraudulent money transfer. Confronted about that by the press on the backdrop of his nomination for the central bank, he said that he had trusted the bank experts under him who should have double-checked before submitting the papers to be signed by him. 

A LIFE THREAT

Earlier on Friday, Karimanski told a news briefing in Parliament that he received a threatening phone message from an unknown number. The message read, “Pull out or you will have troubles, very serious ones!”, said Karimanski.

Police have found out that the message was sent from a phone with a SIM card registered with a Romanian man with the initials L.T. He entered Bulgaria on April 1 and left on April 7. The SIM card was activated for 15 minutes on April 7 and was turned off right after that. Police have also established the exact location where the SIM card was activated and the message sent. The Sofia Regional Prosecution Office is investigating the matter.

The parties of the majority and the opposition in Parliament have expressed outrage over the threatening message.

There Is Such a People are sure that it was a genuine threat. Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said it was clearly a provocation and it is absurd to suspect that Gurov was behind the threat. He said that he has asked the Interior Minister and the head of the State Agency for National Security to do their best and solve the case. He also wrote in a Facebook post that he called Romanian President Klaus Iohannis to ask him for assistance to find the sender of the message. "All Bulgarian citizens should be protected from such attacks," Petkov wrote on Facebook.

Everybody expressed hope that the law-enforcement authorities will do their job and find the perpetrator.

The Sofia Regional Prosecution Office is investigating the matter.