Bulgaria’s PM on the first 100 days of the government in office: Change is taking place and going in the right direction

The current Bulgarian government marks 100 days since taking office.

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov presented his Cabinet’s first 100 days in office in a written statement released by the Council of Ministers on March 22.

He made a statement addressed to the Bulgarian people.

"On the day we took the oath of office, the energy regulator proposed a huge increase in the price of natural gas and electricity, right at the beginning of the heating season, and electricity prices on world markets started to rise. 100 days later, however, the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission has new management that is making sure that prices do not rise unjustifiably in favour of certain producers," the Prime Minister said at the beginning of his statement.

Petkov is adamant that for 100 days now the cabinet has kept electricity prices for household consumers at the same levels as the ones from the summer of 2021, and in April the cabinet will continue to provide financial support for businesses and raise the ceiling of the support.

The Prime Minister also talked about the results of the efforts to handle the health crisis caused by the Omicron variant, about the organisation of the country to provide assistance to those fleeing the war in Ukraine and about the successful completion of technical issues under the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

"In the area of corruption, the fight is difficult. Realistically, we do not have a working Prosecutor's Office and the steps are slower than we would like. 100 days later, we are about to close the flawed Specialised Court and Specialised Prosecutor's Office. The law on the investigative functions of the Counter-Corruption and Unlawfully Acquired Assets Forfeiture Commission is ready. Mr Tsatsarov is no longer the head of this commission," Prime Minister Kiril Petkov reported.

Petkov talked about the strong resistance that his Cabinet is facing when trying to work in the public interest.

"We want to progress even faster, we are not satisfied with the speed with which change is taking place, but we are happy that it is taking place, whether fast or slowly - with smaller steps than we would like, but in the right direction," the Prime Minister noted.