Ivan Kostov
| Ivan Yordanov Kostov (Иван Йорданов Костов) |
|
 |
|
|
46th Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria
|
|
|---|---|
| In office 21 May 1997 – 24 July 2001 |
|
| Preceded by | Stefan Sofiyanski |
| Succeeded by | Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha |
|
|
|
| Born | 23 December 1949 (1949-12-23) (age 60) Sofia, Bulgaria |
| Political party | Union of Democratic Forces, Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria |
| Spouse(s) | Elena Kostova |
| Alma mater | University of National and World Economy, Sofia University |
| Profession | Economist |
Ivan Yordanov Kostov (Bulgarian: Иван Йорданов Костов) (born December 23, 1949 in Sofia) was Prime Minister of Bulgaria from May 1997 to July 2001 and leader of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) between December 1994 and July 2001.
Ivan Kostov graduated in Economics from the Karl Marx Higher Institute of Economics (today's University of National and World Economy) in Sofia in 1974, and later earned a Ph.D. in Mathematical Modeling of Economic Processes from Sofia University. He then worked as an associate professor at Sofia Technical University and entered politics after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Bulgarian communist dictator, Todor Zhivkov. Kostov became an economic expert for the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), the newly created major anticommunist party, in 1990. His political career began as Member of Parliament in the 7th Grand National Assembly in 1990 (he has been re-elected to Parliament ever since) and he went on to become Bulgaria's Finance Minister in the two consecutive governments of Dimitar Popov (December 1990 – October 1991) and Filip Dimitrov (November 1991 – December 1992).
Kostov was elected chairman of the UDF in 1994. In late 1996 and early 1997, mass protests took place against Bulgarian Socialist Party's government which had led the country to hyperinflation and a complete crisis, and those protests ultimately led to the fall of the current government. UDF won the May 1997 elections, and Kostov became Bulgaria's Prime Minister, his cabinet eventually becoming the country's first post-communist government to serve its full 4-year term. He is credited with turning around his country's fortunes, starting sustainable economic growth, and establishing a path towards Bulgaria's complete integration with the West. Under his government, long-delayed economic reforms were carried out, including privatization of state-owned enterprises was carried on a large scale and the country started long-sought accession talks with the European Union (which Bulgaria joined on January 1, 2007). Additionally, during the war in Kosovo he took some difficult but ultimately beneficial decisions, such as to allow NATO but not Russia to use Bulgaria's airspace, and also not to allow refugees from Kosovo to enter Bulgaria.
On the other hand, Kostov's rule was characterized by massive mismanagement and corruption. A number of major enterprises were sold out apiece under the label of "privatization", and all of them eventually bankrupted. Capital stocks of operating state companies were deforced by government officials, while their equipment was sold out. An example of such a scheme was the privatization of Balkan Airlines in 1999, the country's national air service, which was sold for $200,000 and bankrupted in 2002 after most of its equipment and immovable property was sold out. While successful in stabilizing the country, reforms in the social system actually hampered the development of the middle class, and eventually many Bulgarians fled the country after finding themselves unable to rise in the social hierarchy legally. Under Kostov's rule, smuggling and illegal transit flourished. Bulgaria's current account balance started growing negative, and social inequality rose significantly.
Some of Kostov's privatization policies were criticized by his opponents from the Bulgarian Socialist Party. Ultimately the UDF lost in the June 2001 election to the newly formed National Movement Simeon II. Kostov resigned as chair of the UDF and eventually left the party to establish, in 2004, a new political force, Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB).
Current Political Position
After reelection within DSB in July 2007 he remains a leader of the party which proves strong rightist opposition against the governing coalition of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the National Movement Simeon II and the Turkish minority party Movement for Rights and Freedoms. DSB and UDF participated together in the June/July 2009 elections for European and Bulgarian parliament as The Blue Coalition.
External links
| Preceded by Stefan Sofiyanski |
Prime Minister of Bulgaria May 21, 1997 – July 24, 2001 |
Succeeded by Simeon Sakskoburggotski |
|
||||||||||||||
stock | retire | vm
Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History