Kiril Petkov, the “Clean Mister” of Bulgaria
Audio 03:30
Kiril Petkov has promised to fight against the scourge of corruption in Bulgaria.
© Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP
By: Daniel Vallot Follow
4 min
He created a surprise by winning the legislative elections in November, then by forming an unprecedented government coalition when his country had been plunged for several months into an interminable political crisis.
Kiril Petkov was a complete stranger in Bulgaria last spring.
He now embodies a real hope for change.
With one major objective: to put an end to the scourge of corruption.
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To understand the meteoric rise of Kiril Petkov, we have to look at his career, totally atypical within the political class in Bulgaria.
The new Bulgarian Prime Minister grew up in Canada, studied in the United States and did not return to the country until the end of the 2000s. "
He comes from a family whose parents were teachers,
" explains Nadège .
Ragaru, research director at Sciences Po and specialist in the Balkans.
His parents bet on emigration in the 1990s, when Bulgaria was in the midst of an economic crisis, and they settled in Canada.
He grew up there, educated there, then at Harvard and then decided to return to his home country in 2007 when Bulgaria entered the European Union.
"
Now 41 years old, Kiril Petkov is successfully launching a probiotic laboratory: a “
golden boy
”
journey
that fascinates his constituents and galvanizes his supporters.
“
This fascination with success is something extremely important in Bulgaria, in a society that feels fragile, in a country whose young people prefer to emigrate, in short, a country without a future.
So having a great man
- a "little Bulgarian" who succeeded, including in the United States and at Harvard - is a very powerful argument.
"
Fight against corruption
Appointed Minister of the Economy last spring when the country is in the midst of a political crisis, Kiril Petkov seduced by his appearance as a young premier - he is readily compared to John Travolta, by his relaxed style and above all by his desire to fight against the scourge of corruption. The fight against corruption and the rejection of Boyko Borissov, the conservative ex-Prime Minister who has dominated Bulgarian politics for a decade, become the glue of his political platform and his party, "We continue to change" , founded just a few weeks before the legislative elections in November.
"
Petkov and his team succeeded in bringing out corruption scandals within six months of being at the helm of the Ministry of the Economy, within the transitional technical government
," says Romain Le Quiniou, Managing Director of Eurocreative, think tank on central and eastern Europe.
The Bulgarians saw in it a desire to reform from the inside this system of corruption set up by the various traditional parties in Bulgaria since the fall of communism.
This is really the great challenge facing Petkov and his allies
: that the Bulgarian people once again believe in their political system.
"
North Macedonia
: towards a lifting of the veto
Another major issue for the new Bulgarian Prime Minister: the fight against Covid-19.
Bulgaria's vaccination rate is less than 30% and the country has one of the highest death rates in the world.
The main objective of the new Bulgarian Prime Minister will therefore be to convince his fellow citizens to protect themselves against the virus.
On the international scene, Kiril Petkov poses as a convinced pro-European and wants to move forward on an extremely sensitive issue in his country: the accession to the European Union of North Macedonia, which Bulgaria is opposed to.
"
The tactic he adopted is not to focus the talks only on reading history,"
points out Nadège Ragaru,
but also to offer real economic cooperation between the two countries, real infrastructure development. However, from this point of view, the two countries have common interests since North Macedonia is a relatively landlocked country. For its part, in order to shine through the space of South-East Europe, Bulgaria also needs to have more developed traffic networks. So the hope is that through the enthusiasm that has been aroused, it will be possible over the months to move towards a lifting of the veto of Bulgaria.
"
According to statements to the
Financial Times
just before his confirmation as Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov has given himself six months to complete this dossier.
With in sight, the Balkans Summit which will be organized by France next June.
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