The oath of office of the new Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev (middle); PM Borisov is left ahead of the Cabinet. Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria's new President Rosen Plevneliev must be a unifying factor for the Bulgarian nation, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov stated in a laconic comment after Plevneliev was formally sworn into office Thursday.
47-year-old Rosen Plevneliev, a former construction entrepreneur, won the Bulgarian Presidency in the fall 2011 elections on the ticket of Borisov's ruling center-right party GERB.
"I wished the new President Rosen Plevneliev to be healthy, to be just, and to work for the well-being of all Bulgarians," Borisov commented after the inauguration ceremony.
Plevneliev and his Vice President, Margarita Popova, took their oath in the Bulgarian Parliament in presence of Prime Minister Borisov as well as outgoing President Georgi Parvanov, his predecessors Zhelyu Zhelev and Petar Stoyanov, and the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Maxim.
The oath ceremony was marred somewhat by banners raised by the nationalist party Ataka, saying that Plevneliev was elected through election fraud.