IN 2021 BULGARES voted in three general elections and one presidential election. They ended 12 years of rule by Boyko Borisov, a former bull-necked bodyguard whose time in power saw incomes rise, populations plummet and sordid stories of corruption proliferate. But it wasn’t until this week that a new coalition government finally took the reins of power. Make way for the “Harvards”, the political duo now performing a double act.
Kiril Petkov, 41, and Assen Vassilev, 44, are the new prime minister and finance minister respectively, having served earlier this year in the country’s interim government. Both studied at Harvard Business School. Both became successful entrepreneurs after returning home. But that’s not the only reason they’re nicknamed “the Harvards”. In 2008, they jointly opened a center in Sofia affiliated with the school, offering courses on economic strategy and competitiveness. Many of their graduates are either already deputys for the new government or will deploy to lead pieces of the administration.
In September, the couple created a party called We Continue the Change, echoing what they had started as acting ministers. In the last election, on November 14, he came out on top, winning nearly 26% of the vote; it took them a good month to form a coalition.
Bulgaria is the poorest country in EU, but the Harvard duo say it shouldn’t be. “Bulgaria is not a poor country,” says Vassilev. He was simply “brutally looted”. Mr Petkov says they became frustrated because, according to the business models they were teaching, all the advantages of Bulgaria (location, EU membership, a decent education system) should have made it “an incredible growth success story”. Instead, it stagnated due to corruption and mismanagement. Mr Petkov said they were hopeful that a new leader would emerge that they could advise as experts. When that didn’t happen, they decided: ” Okay, let’s go! ” – by themselves.
When he was 13, Mr. Petkov’s parents emigrated to Canada. He graduated in finance and landed a job with a Canadian food giant, McCain. But he was aiming for things more important than the baked chips. In 2005, he wrote in his Harvard application that he wanted to be Bulgaria’s finance minister. After graduating, he raised money for a business park outside of Sofia, then invested first in equipment to eliminate birds from the tracks and then in probiotics.
Mr. Petkov and Mr. Vassilev were not very well known in Bulgaria until recently, but they are not new to politics. Mr Vassilev was briefly Minister of the Economy in 2013. Mr Petkov has long been a champion of green causes and made the news in 2018 when he traveled to Nepal on a mission to track down a missing Bulgarian climber. .
Ognyan Georgiev, editor of “Kapital Insights,” an online trade publication, says the duo reminds him of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s partnership in Britain in the 1990s. He says Mr Petkov is “energetic , outspoken, optimistic and wildly charismatic and wants to be the face of it all, “while Mr. Vassilev is the reserved and cerebral half of the duo.
Vessela Tcherneva of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank, warns that the couple must act quickly to get results, especially with their anti-corruption agenda, as the just-new and upbeat popularity can quickly spike. evaporate. The couple must get a quick and impressive bribery conviction, she says, and it’s easier said than done. The Attorney General, whom the new government cannot legally dismiss, is a man of the old regime. Indeed, all Bulgarian institutions and much of its media are run by people loyal to Mr Borisov and his allies. Borisov’s team may be absent, but they are far from gone.
Other EU MEPs, meanwhile, want Bulgaria to lift its veto on opening accession talks with North Macedonia, which is part of a feud over language and historical identity. Mr Petkov says he has a plan for this, but it will take time. His first concern, he says, is to end a shabby deal whereby the EU turned a blind eye to Bulgaria’s corruption until Bulgaria became a troublemaker like Hungary. ■
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the title “Here come the Harvards”