Relations between the Presidency, Parliament and the Cabinet in Bulgaria are under unprecedented strain after President Georgi Purvanov posted on his website a transcript of his March 5 meeting with Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov.

Purvanov’s office described the post as an act of transparency, but draw almost unanimous condemnation from the right-wing in Parliament. Purvanov came under fire on a number of counts, from recording the conversation secretly, to publishing it online without Dyankov’s consent, to waging a war against the Cabinet and exposing his ambition to stay on in the country’s political life after the end of his second term in 2012.

The outcome was a March 10 decision by ruling party GERB to initiate the procedure to request Purvanov’s impeachment on the basis that his posting of the transcript without Dyankov’s consent was, GERB said, a violation of the constitutional provision forbidding the making of such recordings without consent.

Scene-setter
At the centre of the drama is the transcript of the Purvanov-Dyankov meeting on March 5 which was held at Dyankov’s request.

The meeting was announced to the media the day before, and was billed as evidence of Dyankov’s desire to clear up the "misunderstanding" between him and Purvanov. This misunderstanding followed Dyankov’s March 1 appearance on Nova Televisia’s Ivan and Andrei chat show.

On the show, when Dyankov was asked whether he had said that Purvanov owned luxury properties in the US, Dubai and Europe, Dyankov answered, "I don’t remember saying such a thing...this is not something I have said". He was then asked whether it was true that Purvanov was a young billionaire to which Dyankov replied, smiling: "he (Purvanov) is definitely not young". Purvanov’s office reacted by asking Dyankov to explain his position on references to Purvanov’s alleged properties abroad worth billions - or resign. Hence the March 5 meeting.

This was not the first time Dyankov and Purvanov clashed. On several occasions over the past six months, Dyankov publicly disagreed with some of the ideas advocated by Purvanov, in one case calling Purvanov’s economic experts "imbecilic".

Dyankov showed no inclination to hold back when commenting about Purvanov, even though Prime Minister Boiko Borissov had repeated that he,  and only he, was in a position to comment on the President. Further, Dyankov was the only Cabinet minister who allowed himself to make comments (in almost all cases negative) about Purvanov and his ideas, while Borissov kept silent. Some analysts quickly interpreted this as Dyankov playing the role of the bad cop. Dyankov had come to Bulgaria to join the Cabinet after long years of living in the US, married to a US citizen, and working as a World Bank economist.

Some commentators said that this meant that Dyankov felt that he had nothing to lose politically in attacking the President. Others claimed that it was his experience in the US that led to Dyankov’s frank, direct and open way of public speaking, to which Bulgaria’s public and politicians were not accustomed. Given all this, Dyankov’s barb about how Purvanov was "not young", added to the suspense when Dyankov arrived at the Presidency on March 5.

After the meeting, Dyankov refused to comment on the specifics of what was discussed, saying only that the meeting had been "a constructive one". Despite being chased by reporters, he refused to say anything more, which in itself was some kind of a sign of how the meeting had gone. A few hours later, everybody understood why Dyankov had not been in his best mood after the meeting.

Transparency
Purvanov’s posting of the transcript on the presidential website was a move for which there was scant precedent in his eight years as head of state.

In short, the transcript of the 30-minute meeting showed Purvanov asking Dyankov to apologise for his words on Nova Televisia’s show, while Dyankov denied that he had said anything for which he should apologise. Purvanov kept insisting that Dyankov was part of some deliberate plot against the Presidency (Purvanov reminded Dyankov of all the previous misunderstandings between them) and that his March 1 appearance was well planned, to which Dyankov disagreed. At the end of the meeting, Purvanov delivered a short speech asking Dyankov to apologise to everyone in Bulgaria for the policy he had  been following. In sum, Dyankov’s olive branch was snapped.

What, however, was more obvious from the transcript - as all of Purvanov’s critics and political opponents later claimed - was that Dyankov was given the role of the pupil being punished by the headmaster. Although Dyankov denied ever doing anything deliberately against Purvanov, the conversation forced him into the role of humility and subordination. In short, it made him (Dyankov) look weak.