The New York Times
By IAN FISHER
SOFIA, Bulgaria — The king has won most of the attention, but a few facts have not escaped note about the two American-educated investment bankers who, as of today, are among the most powerful people in the new order of Bulgaria.
First is their age: the new finance minister is 35 and the deputy prime minister in charge of the economy is only 31.
Second, in a nation where the average monthly wage is just over $100, are the salaries they just left behind. "Two ministers quit $715,000 jobs," a front-page headline in the leading daily newspaper read on Monday. The paper did not neglect to say that, as ministers, they will now earn only $450 a month.
"I really can't comment," the new finance minister, Milen Velchev, a former vice president with Merrill Lynch in London, said with some embarrassment today when asked about his old salary.
King Simeon II, the deposed child czar whom Parliament officially approved as prime minister today, preferred not to disclose many specifics during the campaign that ended in a sweep last month for his new party.
And so the people of Bulgaria — a poor nation that is nonetheless a haven of stability in the troubled Balkans — are looking for fresh clues about his intentions in the faces of the 16 people also approved today to form his new cabinet.
At first glance, some say, his choice of a cabinet appears to show him keeping his promise to appoint professionals, untainted by the corruption and cronyism that has angered Bulgarians. In fact, most are untainted by government at all: like the king himself, few in the new cabinet have any political experience. None have ever been a minister.
"Rather than looking for jobs to reward his people, he is actually trying to find the best people to fill the particular jobs," Mr. Velchev said. "That's why most of them are experts in their fields, not politicians."
But some Bulgarians express at least mild concern about having so many unknown faces running the government — particularly given King Simeon's now famous unwillingness to reveal too much.
"This is the first time in the last 12 years or so to have prominent politicians you know nothing about," said Boyan Belev of the Center for the Study of Democracy, a research institute in Sofia. "It doesn't have to be bad. I think it's not.
"But he has to talk about it," he added, "because Bulgarians are now used to hearing about the personal and professional accomplishments of their politicians. The less transparent, the public fears, the less democratic."
Ivan Stancioff, a Bulgarian businessman who is the former ambassador to Britain, praised King Simeon's "courage" in taking on the job of prime minister, a much grittier job than the largely ceremonial post of president that he was thought to prefer when he first entered the political fray in his native land more than five decades after being forced by the Communists to flee. But, Mr. Stancioff said, today marks a new phase in his new political career.
"He's proven that he can be successful in getting votes," he said. "He is successful because he has said very little. He has said nothing. Obviously that is over. He has to produce."
On Tuesday, in a speech to Parliament, King Simeon outlined in broad strokes what he has called his 800- day drive for reform in Bulgaria. He promised a speeded-up improvement in living standards, a fight against corruption, an increase in foreign investment and the lowering of personal and corporate taxes.
He also repeated his promise to push Bulgaria toward membership in NATO and the European Union. The king had reportedly been undecided about joining with European defenses, but in the end he picked as his foreign minister a mathematician named Solomon Passy, who has campaigned for more than a decade for Bulgaria to join NATO.
"Today we stand a real chance of being able to usher Bulgaria into the new 21st century and take the place we deserve in united Europe," King Simeon, who is 64 and who fled Bulgaria in 1946, living mostly in Spain, said in his speech in Parliament.
The king's party, the National Movement for Simeon II, won exactly half of the 240 parliamentary seats last month, and joined in a ruling coalition with the Turk Movement for Rights and Freedom to ensure a working majority in the legislature.
Ethnic Turks make up roughly 10 percent of the nation's eight million people and, while they have had some say in government before, today marks the first time they have held ministerial seats. Two cabinet posts were given to Turks, the agriculture ministry and a minister without portfolio.
Ahmed Dogan, leader of the Turkish party, today noted what he called a historic moment for Turks in Bulgaria, who faced repression in the 1980's during Communist rule and remain far poorer than most Bulgarians. "We are prepared to bear the responsibility for being in government," he said in Parliament.
The previous government, the Union of Democratic Forces, was credited with many reforms that moved Bulgaria forward economically, and the country has grown for the last three years. But voters were angry because living standards are still low, unemployment is high and the economy remains the most pressing issue for Bulgarians.
And so King Simeon's economic team has perhaps attracted the most interest.
Mr. Velchev began his career in the foreign ministry, then studied on a Fulbright Fellowship, first at the University of Rochester in New York and then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The 31-year-old deputy prime minister, Nikolai Vassilov, studied at the State University of New York in Oswego and at Brandeis University. An investment banker most recently with Lazard Capital Markets in London, he became well known in Bulgaria during the last two years through a program in which Bulgarians working abroad commented on government reforms.
The two men have given themselves 800 days to produce tangible change. But today was given over both to celebration and the mundane.
"Nice office," Mr. Velchev said, in his new, and bare, space in the grand finance ministry building in downtown Sofia. "Still trying to find out if the phones work."
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