IN: New Health Minister Evgenii Zhelev was described by analysts as one of President Georgi Purvanov’s nominations in the Government’s re-shuffles. The reason was Zhelev’s current position as Purvanov’s adviser on regional policy issues and head of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad. Zhelev was mayor of Stara Zagora, elected on a BSP ticket, for two consecutive terms and lost the battle for a third term by less than one per cent. He has a degree in medicine and has worked as head of one of the city’s hospitals. As newly appointed minister he asked the media to give him 14 days to present his ideas for health care reform. “We should be more generous in spending,” Zhelev said.

OUT: The news about the replacement of Radoslav Gaidarski as health minister did not come as a surprise. Gaidairksi has always been one of the most criticised BSP officials. A prominent surgeon himself, Gaidarski managed to get into disputes with most of the famous names in the profession in the country such as Alexander Chirkov. Health workers staged several protests demanding higher pay and changes to the reforms undertaken by Gaidarski, but got little if no sympathy from him. He had plans for liberalising the health sector by allowing private health funds to operate in the country but did little to achieve this goal.