Bulgaria's Top Cop to Be Ousted Too - Report

The resignation of Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, is pending, according to unconfirmed reports.

Last Thursday, the Parliament adopted the proposal of the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, banning ministers from acting as chiefs of election campaign headquarters.

Two days later, Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, announced Tsvetanov will be the chief of the GERB election campaign headquarters, prompting a wave of commentaries that this will force the Interior Minister to resign from the post.

The above claims flared with renewed force Monday on the heels of breaking news that Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, has resigned.

Borisov is going to propose to the Members of the Parliament to vote personal and structural changes in the cabinet, the government press office further reported.

The PM wants to release Djankov from both posts – as Deputy PM and as Finance Minister.

Regional Minister, Lilyana Pavlova, who is the highest rated minister in the Cabinet Borisov, is to take over the Deputy PM duties, while the Minister for the Management of EU Funds, Tomislav Donchev, is to be elected Finance Minister.

Pavlova is to keep the Regional Minister post and Donchev will hold two jobs.

The news stunned many Bulgarians as Djankov was one of the favorite ministers of Borisov, and enjoyed his firm support all since the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, took office.

The PM often praised him locally and across Europe for maintaining strong fiscal discipline.

The resignation also came after large-scale protest rallies against high electricity and heating bills took place across Bulgaria Sunday, with hundreds of thousands of outraged citizens taking on the streets.

The reshuffle happens just months before the general election and in the aftermath of an unseen so far number of other such dismissals and replacements.

The site OFFNews writes, citing own, undisclosed sources that a meeting had taken place last week in the presence of Borisov, Djankov, and the Speaker of the Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva.

There, the PM had been obviously irked and had attacked the Finance Minister with strong accusations that he was the one to be blamed for the low incomes and living standards of Bulgarians. Djankov had countered that the country's macro-economic indicators were excellent and had started to list them. When he had mentioned lack of debt as one of them, Tsacheva had noted: "Homeless people do not have debts either."

At this point, Borisov had become enraged, gave Djankov a deadline of one month to find ways to increase incomes and halted the meeting.