Vladimir Mitev: Bulgarian rotational governance formula dresses resource allocation in European clothes

Lora Indzhova

Vladimir Mitev is the editor of the Romanian section of Radio Bulgaria and the founder of the Bulgarian-Romanian blog The Bridge of Friendship. On May 24, 2023, the host of Nova News’ morning emission, Lora Indzhova, interviewed him about Romania’s rotational model of government. Vladimir Mitev explained how this formula was arrived at, how the negotiations on the implementation of the rotation are going on and drew parallels with the Bulgarian situation. 

In the end, the rotation in the Romanian government was postponed so that the crisis with the Romanian teachers’ strike could be resolved first. Their protest has the support of many Romanians, but the government says it has no money to raise their low salaries. 

Lora Indzhova: We continue. Vladimir Mitev is on our direct line. He is a colleague – a journalist from the Bulgarian National Radio. We will talk to him about the rotating government in Romania. Is this a working model? How far have the Romanians gone in organising such a governance model? Apparently, we in Bulgaria are not finding the hot water. Hello, Mr Mitev, and happy holiday!

Vladimir Mitev: Thank you!

Tell us what is happening! In practice, at the moment in Romania, such governance has not yet worked. There are still things that are being cleared up. I suppose there is also political jockeying for ministerial seats. And what is the situation there?

We are actually in the middle of negotiations on the agreement on the new government, where the future government is to be led by Marcel Ciolacu of the Social Democratic Party. Let me remind our viewers that Romania currently has a three-party government: the National Liberal Party, the Social Democratic Party and the party of ethnic hungarians. They agreed at the end of 2021 that the Prime Minister would be a representative of the National Liberal Party, General Nicolae Ciuca. The agreement was that after 18 months they would change seats and the leader of the Social Democratic Party would come forward. 

The problem, as you also said, is that there are ministries with greater economic resources, with greater opportunities to allocate funds and to achieve political influence through redistribution. And therefore there is a struggle going on between the three parties as to who should take these ministries. And the latest information, which is from a few days ago, is that, for example, the Hungarian party is reluctant to join such a new government because it very much wants to get the Ministry of Regional Development, while the other parties are also reluctant to keep their candidates.

So there is a dispute over ministerial posts. There is such discussion and controversy going on between them at the moment. Sorry to interrupt you. However, why did Romania arrive at this model, and there is no other option where the state can work, where the legislative activity of the MPs can be activated. In fact, with us, generally speaking, this is the argument: we need to pass the budget, we need to look at our priorities for the euro area, for Schengen and so on, and so on.

That is right. Similarly, in Romania, there are European funds that have to be absorbed, and if they are not absorbed, the country does not develop at the required speed. You know that Romania has had great economic growth in recent years. It is due to the finishing line of these European funds entering the economy. However, before, as I mentioned, at the end of 2021, in September to be precise, a political crisis arose. Then the government was made up of a party that is rather linked to the corporate sector and has an anti-corruption agenda. It was called Union Save Romania Plus. It ruled together with the National Liberal Party and the Hungarian people’s money. Disputes arose over the management of resources. Earlier, the Minister of Health from the Union Save Romania party, Vlad Voiculescu, who some of us may know is the main character of the film ‘Colectiv’ as an example of a new type of politician and so on.. he was forced to leave the government. You know the Ministry of Health is tied up with big money. Similarly, the Save Romania Union tried to stop the introduction of a Romanian investment plan by the National Liberal Party, accusing it of wanting to give money to its circles of companies and so on. Then this crisis arose simply because the portions generally of power could not be distributed in a way that would satisfy everyone. And then, with the intervention of President Klaus Iohannis, a formula was arrived at that was not so long expected.

Klaus Iohannis had previously had messages against the Social Democratic Party and blamed it for the ills in Romania. You will remember that in the 2016-2019 period, there were conflicts between the Social Democratic Party led by Liviu Dragnea and the others. Eventually, Iohannis facilitated an agreement where the two largest traditional parties, the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party, which are linked to the transition, came together in government and, together with the Hungarian party, found some kind of cooperation on how to allocate the funds that were available.

You, as a true professional, have gone into quite serious detail. However, I would like us to compare this model, which is here in Bulgaria, with what you are seeing, observing and reporting as a journalist in Romania, and which is still being negotiated. But what does this model look like for you in Romania? We have a horizon of 18 months. We have a prime minister for the first 9 months. In this case it will be academician Nikolai Denkov. After that, according to the Bulgarian constitution, the procedure will start again. Academician Denkov has to resign at the end of these 9 months to start Article 99, namely the mandate procedure, and it will probably happen faster than we are seeing now. But how will the same cabinet be formed with a new prime minister in Romania? What is the situation? I understand that you are not in Romania at the moment, but you are certainly following these developments. You work on Romanian issues.

Let me say that in Romania the arrangement for a change of 18 months and a government will be different for sure. It is just that the negotiations are such that not only the Prime Minister will be replaced, but also part of the composition.

That is something else.

It is possible that some of the ministers will remain in their positions. For example, the Minister for Transport, Sorin Grindeanu, who is a former Prime Minister, is now very keen to keep his position, because the Ministry of Transport also allocates large funds. So perhaps there will be some ministers who will keep their positions, but there is talk of a new cabinet. And, as I said, at the moment, it is possible that the Hungarian party will not even enter it. It is important to say that at the moment there is a strike protest by secondary education teachers already in education and it is also slowing down the course of the negotiations. The agreement in principle is to change the government on Friday, but so far we do not have white smoke from the chimney. So the talk is that it is possible. Maybe we should even wait a bit to resolve this crisis that has arisen with the teachers as they demand higher salaries.

Did I understand correctly that now is the time of rotation?

Right.

Let’s see if this model works and how far these squabbles will go…

It is possible that the rotation will be postponed to resolve this political crisis, which is real-life and was not foreseen on paper when they agreed in 2021.

How do you feel about the processes in Bulgaria now as a bystander? Speaking of Romania, if your view is, will we be able to make such a model work? Will it be easier for us? You are certainly excited and you are watching the political statements here.

It has struck me that in Romania there does not seem to be any clear ideology that unites these parties that are now in government, except perhaps that they are of a similar type – the so-called transition parties or clientelist, old-style parties. You know, there is this rhetoric in our country that there are new types of parties and old parties. But here, in Bulgaria, at least for now, it seems to me that there is an attempt by politicians to dress this union up in some kind of clothing that makes it sound as if there is an idea behind it, for example, the European idea.

So you see a unification along Euro-Atlantic lines, a direction of development for Bulgaria, which makes this configuration more homogeneous.

I think it’s about control of resources everywhere, but it’s just that our politicians are trying to maintain a narrative that there’s something higher than just fighting over some money that has to be absorbed.

I really liked how you put it. Okay, and we will watch to see where this model goes with us, and when exactly and how will it work, in what specific draft? Yesterday, Academician Denkov said on the air of Nova that they are sticking to the draft list that they presented a little earlier to GERB and which GERB rejected. But we will probably see there will be some personnel changes. Thank you very much, Mr Mitev, for joining us on air. We will be relying on you again when we talk about Romania and what is happening there. Vladimir Mitev, BNR journalist for Romania, on the rotating government in Romania and whether it is a workable model. We are yet to see what will happen in Romania. From there we can draw conclusions.

Photo: (source: PIxabay, CC0)

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