Bulgaria's former caretaker Prime Minister, Marin Raykov, has assessed the work of his Cabinet as the one of a team playing in the Premier League.

Raykov spoke Friday at an official ceremony in the building of the Administration of the President in Sofia, where he offered an account of the activities of the caretaker government during its 78 days in office.

"We were not the Cabinet of a political party or of certain oligarchs. We played as a top team in this so difficult for Bulgaria moment. We inherited all the enemies of the formerly-ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, but we did not get their supporters. We tried hard, but ran a bit short of time in order to see the results from our blueprints. We took over the rule of the country at times no one wanted it. We made the commitment to organize fair and transparent elections – only history will say if we succeeded. Let's don't forget that fairness also depends from the participants," the caretaker PM stated.

President, Rosen Plevneliev, gave high marks to the work of the Cabinet "Raykov," saying it was able to achieve its two most important goals - appease social tensions after the mass protests in February and March, and organize the May 12 early general elections.

Plevneliev, too, stressed that the caretaker government took charge and assumed responsibility when no one wanted to do so.

"Others might have and have different opinions than mine, but mine is firm and final – the elections were organized very well. This is also the opinion of international observers," said the President.

He explained that the biggest achievement of the caretaker Cabinet was the preparation of new rules for transparency in deciding how much and in what banks State monies will be deposited.

The caretaker Cabinet further reported that in its 78 days in office the unemployment rate went down by 1.6%; the insurance amount against unpaid debt was also lowered; BGN 300 M in credits have been given to small and medium businesses from the JEREMIE program, and another BGN 100 000 from the same program to the most disadvantaged people.

"We inherited a highly restrictive budget and firm commitments made without foundations in this budget, but still increased the fiscal reserve to BGN 5.5 B. Our education system, however, is in bad shape – it needs fast and efficient cure, both with money and reforms. We also worked on an Innovations Bill, which I gave to my successor, Plamen Oresharski," said Raykov.

"The caretaker government proved that Bulgaria can be ruled without backstage bargaining. It established a mode of dialogue and cooperation," Plevneliev concluded.

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