President Georgi Purvanov seems determined to cast himself in the role of leader of the opposition to Prime Minister Boiko Borissov.

Currently, there is a vacancy for this role. Opinion polls have confirmed that, after more than a month in office, Borissov and his party have gained public support. The media is generally supportive of Borissov. The leader of the largest minority opposition party, Sergei Stanishev of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, appears politically emasculated and in a struggle to survive as leader after the BSP’s defeat, while most other minority parties are lobbing little or no criticism that might sully Borissov’s political honeymoon.

The role of critic-in-chief is not new for Purvanov. He made known his dissent with some of the actions of the two previous governments.

Purvanov and Borissov became entangled in a brief but undignified spat over Purvanov’s response in going to Macedonia to meet survivors of the Lake Ohrid tragedy; Purvanov spoke of the need to revive the emergency situations ministry, an absurd assertion given how discredited that happily now-defunct institution was.

Barely 48 hours after the Ohrid squabble passed, Purvanov released a lengthy article criticising the new Government’s approach to energy policies – an action more befitting an opposition party leader, especially given that whatever other tasks and roles are assigned to the head of state by Bulgaria’s constitution, shaping energy policy is not among them. Purvanov’s criticism of Borissov as "unprepared" for the Prime Minister’s meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and his assertion that there should be "continuity" in energy policy seemed oblivious to the fact that the electorate had voted for a party that, among other things, made clear before the vote that it intended changes to energy policy. Again, objective observers might be hard-pressed to understand why energy projects that inextricably tie Bulgaria to Russian enterprises serve the cause of energy diversity and security.

A day later, Purvanov announced that he was convening the National Security Advisory Council, with an agenda including steps under the EU-Bulgaria Co-operation and Verification Mechanism on justice and home affairs and the absorption of EU funds, again as if he sought to seize the initiative on Government tasks from Borissov who had travelled to Brussels that day for talks with EU leadership on these and other issues.

It remains to be seen whether other political forces will join in the fray, and if so how soon, as Purvanov doubles up as head of state and leader of the opposition.