Maria Gabriel wants to be Assistant Director-General of UNESCO. The outgoing government strongly supports her

The rotation of the “Sglobkata” coalition threw Maria Gabriel into a dead orbit, but the force of power’s gravity brought her back to the horizon. It turns out that she has applied for the position of Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, and the outgoing Bulgarian government is strongly supporting her. Gabriel wants to take over the “Communication and Information” portfolio, BIRD has learned from sources within the organization.

The letter with the official governmental support was signed on January 23 by the outgoing Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev and has not yet been made public.

But before Gabriel takes on the responsibility for the world’s communication and information heritage, let us recall her own legacy in Bulgarian politics – a series of discrepancies with the truth, cheap state-owned housing, and questionable appointments. One of these is that of the current Bulgarian ambassador to Paris and UNESCO, Radka Balabanova-Ruleva, who is tasked with supporting and promoting her candidacy with the new Egyptian Director-General.

The phantom doctorate: “Doctor” on television, but not in the registers

 

One of the earliest and most persistent myths in the biography of Maria Gabriel (then Nedelcheva) is her academic degree. In a pre-election clip by GERB for the 2009 European elections, she confidently states: “I have a doctorate in political science.” This claim was confirmed in 2011 on her official page as a Member of the European Parliament, where it is stated that she holds a doctorate from the Institute of Political Sciences in Bordeaux and the Free University of Brussels, completed between 2003 and 2011.

However, an investigation by BIRD revealed that this is a lie. Mariya Gabriel never defended her dissertation. A check in the French state database theses.fr, where all obtained doctorates must be published, shows that her name is missing. Subsequently, in her official biographies as European Commissioner, the title “doctor” discreetly disappeared, probably to avoid the requirement to present a diploma, which she does not possess.

Три лъжи на Мария Габриел

“Stocking up” in municipality housing for 400 BGN

 

Even more scandalous is the household case that highlighted the privileges of the GERB party elite. Investigations by Bivol showed that for years Maria Gabriel had been using a large municipality apartment (128 sq. m.) in a prestigious area of the capital for a symbolic rent of 400 leva per month. This was at a time when she was already receiving a huge salary as a Member of the European Parliament.

When the scandal broke, Gabriel tried to justify herself by claiming that she had used the apartment only for “storage” of luggage and that she had vacated it back in 2013. However, the facts proved her wrong: the investigation showed that she had paid electricity bills for the property in question until 2017, which exposed the future European Commissioner in yet another public lie. Despite the obvious conflict of interest and favoritism with public resources, the KPONPI dismissed her with the convenient interpretation that at that time MEPs were not considered “public officials” within the meaning of Bulgarian law.

The “discreet” diplomacy of gaffes

 

To her portfolio, we must also add her management style as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the “Sglobka” government. While public competitions are held for junior experts in the administration, under Gabriel’s leadership, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduced a practice of recruiting candidates for ambassadors and diplomatic posts “discreetly” and “on paper”, without unnecessary noise and digital traces.

ТThis is the case with our current ambassador in Paris. Radka Balabanova-Ruleva made several gaffes as a senior official in the ministry, but these were swept under the carpet. As a reward, Gabriel sends her to Paris. Naturally, Balabanova will remain loyal to Gabriel and her patron Boyko Borisov. Because the rugs can be lifted and what has been swept under them can resurface.

“Kalinka, Kalinka…” – Russian communication cap

 

Will the candidacy succeed? BIRD sources in diplomatic circles say that the intergovernmental institution will not welcome with open arms as its Assistant Director-General a person with proven falsehoods in her biography and a tendency to use low-cost state privileges. On the other hand, Maria Gabriel may receive serious support from Russia and its satellites. The Communication and Information sector at UNESCO has always been extremely important to Moscow, which held it for nearly ten years, and Russia’s biggest proven trump card in Bulgaria is still Boyko Borisov, who built Putin’s Balkan Stream. The new player, Radev, has yet to prove in practice, not with words but with cash and euros, that he can be relied upon.

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