site.btaEx-PM: Caretaker Cabinet's Decisions Take Bulgaria Two Steps Back

Former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov lashed out at the two-day-old caretaker government for some decisions revisiting his own Cabinet's decisions. "Why did we make a step forward and then, at a moment that is crucial for Bulgaria, we are taking two steps back?" he wrote in a Facebook post Friday.

The post is prompted by the caretaker Cabinet's handling the gas crisis and its response to the COVID trends, among others.

Petkov wrote: "A gas crisis task force is being set up to work around the clock - but neither has information been requested from the company expecting seven shiploads of LNG for delivery, nor has there been any talks with Turkey about a vacant terminal slot for the tankers. They have not called the company that reserved capacity [for handling the LNG shiploads] for us in Greece and there is no information about any talks with Greece about receiving more LNG via Revithoussa after our neighbours announced an expansion of the terminal's capacity. But there is already talk of Gazprom and long-term contracts. Can't they see that even Germany has its Russian gas deliveries cut? Is it not the most important thing for people to have security of supply? What exactly is the task force doing?"

He warns that the Bulgaria-Greece gas interconnector is being put at risk when it is so close to being commissioned – by a decision of the new Energy Minister of August 3 to revoke a July 22 decision of the Petkov government concerning the selection of the Supervisory Board of interconnector project company, ICGB. Due to that, ICGB will not meet the requirements for change of the corporate structure and risks failure to meet the deadlines set by the regulators. "This means a delay of the expected dramatic reduction in the price of gas from Azerbaijan. Why? Putting the link into operation will save Bulgaria millions of leva!," Petkov wrote.

He goes on to question the caretaker government's decisions reversing his own government's decisions, including one related to Bulgaria's admission to the OECD.

He calls the replacement of the National Revenue Agency chief "unmotivated" and said not even the high tax revenues could save him.

He asks why a face mask mandate was introduced for all indoor public places in Sofia when only 2.5% of Sofia's intensive care beds are filled.

"Bulgaria is really on the watershed. The model of feudal dependencies, backstage moves and retrograde strategies, which cost the country an awful lot, is attacking from every corner. And the most important thing at this moment for people is to have stability and security, to create and look to the future," Petkov wrote adding that everything is in the hands of Bulgarian people if they vote in the next elections and end all steps backwards.