NID: BULGARIA: PRIME MINISTER, CABINET RESIGN

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06826867
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2019
• Publication Date: February 2, 1990

Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826867
O. I
BULGARIA: Prime Minister, Cabinet Resign
The resignation of Bulgaria's Prime Minister and Council of Ministers
yesterday and the failure of the party congress to make substantial
reforms signal a political crisis that may lead to a coalition government
as early as next week.
Primc Minister Gcorgi Atanasov and his cabinet resigned yesterday
under intense criticism at the party congress,
more reassignments and purges will be announced today.
The congress passed new party statutes yesterday to replace the
Central Committee and Politburo, separate party and government
positions. eliminate the concept of democratic centralism, and limit
the number of terms party leaders may serve. More radical reforms,
such as changing the party's name and eliminating party
organ.zations in workplaces, however, were not approved, leading a
reformist faction to announce it will create a separate Bulgarian
Socialist Party next week.
Comment: The dissolution of the cabinet and failure of the party
congress to adopt significant reforms show the inability of the
Communist leadership to respond to party and public discontent,
particularly over economic woes. Atanasov's growing unpopularity
and association with the Zhivkov regime made his resignation
unavoidable. The resignation of the Council of Ministers, however,
stemmed from its failure to address Bulgaria's growing economic
difficulties.
Petar Mladenov probably will resign as party General Secretary but
remain head of state. Some key hardline party leaders are likely to fall
as the Central Committee is replaced by a smaller Supreme Council.
Reformist Politburo members Aleksander Lilov and Andrey Lukanov
will iobably become party leader and Prime Minister, respectively.
The rcgime hopes the changes will help it regain credibility, and it
probably will seek to entice the opposition Union of Democratic
Forces into a coalition government within a few weeks, implicating
the UDF in the economic crisis and undercutting its popularity
before elections set for May. The UDF rejected such calls earlier this
week :ricl probably will press for a caretaker government of civil
servants, but the public sense of a deepening crisis may forc�t to join
a coalition as early as next week.
3
v�erec�.
TC'S 2727/90
2 February 1990
Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826867