Speculation that Roumyana Zheleva, Bulgaria’s controversial European Commissioner-designate, could be made to withdraw her nomination, has resurfaced in the local and European media.
 
With the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) having indicated it could take revenge for the debacle that was Zheleva’s January 12 2010 confirmation hearing by mounting an equivalent attack on Slovakian candidate Maros Sefcovic, reports from Brussels said that the two largest forces in the European Parliament were seeking a deal that would keep the EC process on track by coming up with more acceptable nominees.
 
In Bulgaria, some observers have interpreted Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s comment to Bulgarian National Television that he would be prepared to drop Zheleva if it turned out to be true that there were shortcomings in her statement about her business interests, as a sign that he had a "plan B" in mind.
 
Apart from reported divisions in the EPP about whether to continue supporting Zheleva, media in Sofia said that not everyone in Borissov’s party, GERB, was sure of the wisdom of continuing her candidacy.
 
Dnevnik said that it was possible that Zheleva would be withdrawn and so would Sefcovic, in a move that would see the centre-rightists and socialists in the EP cancel out the two problem candidates.
 
Domestically, there could also be a question about Zheleva defaulting to the post she still holds, Foreign Minister of Bulgaria. There is said to be concern that her performance at the hearing has damaged her standing as a minister, and she could step down from that post.
 
Dnevnik quoted a report from the previous week in mass-circulation daily Trud that Borissov, in an interview, had said that he could be Foreign Minister, combining the post with that of being Prime Minister in the same way as was being done by George Papandreou in Greece.
 
Bulgarian media reports have mentioned a number of names as successor as Foreign Minister – current deputy Marin Raikov, GERB MEP Andrei Kovachev, adviser Yuliana Nikolova and Stefan Tafrov.
 
However, Dnevnik said, there was concern among some GERB MPs that, if Zheleva was made to fall on her sword, it would send a signal that sustained public campaigns of negative publicity worked well against the party. The report mentioned Todor Yosifov, who stepped down as a GERB MP after negative material on the internet about his past as a rap DJ by the name "Maniac", and Desislava Taneva, who withdrew as a candidate minister after negative media reports about her.