Date formed 21 May 1997 Head of government Ivan Kostov | Date dissolved 24 July 2001 Head of state Petar Stoyanov | |
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Deputy head of government See list
Nikolai Vasilev (Economy)
Lydia Shuleva (Labour and Social Policy)
Kostadin Paskalev (2001-2002) (Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works)
Plamen Panaiotov (2002-2005) Member parties United Democratic Forces | ||
The eighty-fourth cabinet of Bulgaria ruled from May 21, 1997 to July 24, 2001. The government was formed by the United Democratic Forces, an electoral alliance led by the Union of Democratic Forces, after they won a landslide victory in the 1997 parliamentary election winning 49.15% of the votes and 137 (out of 240) seats in the National Assembly. The cabinet was chaired by the UDF leader Ivan Kostov who shared the cabinet posts between his party and his allies. This was the largest margin of victory since the end of communism in 1990, to this day. Kostov's government was the first since 1990 to serve its entire four-year mandate.
Contents
Background
In the previous parliamentary election (1994) the Bulgarian Socialist Party won a majority of the seats and the UDF was reduced to 69 seats. Up to that point in time the UDF had formed government only once, under Philip Dimitrov, and governed for one year only (1991-1992). The tide turned on the socialists, however, after the economic meltdown during the winter of 1996-1997 and the government was forced to step down. After declaring their intentions to form a new government, the UDF and other opposition parties staged mass rallies demanding snap elections. Eventually the Socialists bowed to the pressure and agreed. After a caretaker government was appointed in February, early parliamentary elections were scheduled for April, two years before otherwise scheduled. The result was a landslide victory for Ivan Kostov's electoral alliance.
Changes on December 21, 1999
In December 1999 the National Security Agency released a report following a sweeping investigation, written by Tsvetlin Iovchev, outlining possible security threats. Michael Cherney, an Uzbekistan-born Israeli businessman, was expelled from the country and forbidden from reentering for 10 years for his ties to foreign criminal money-laundering schemes. Also, three diplomats from the Russian embassy were expelled from the country and their spy was arrested, accused of leaking classified documents to the Russians.
The following changes were made to the Cabinet: