Government > Leaders Stats: compare key data on Bulgaria & Croatia

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STAT	Bulgaria	Croatia	HISTORY
Head of state > Term limit for head of state	5 Ranked 55th. The same as Croatia	5 Ranked 44th.
President	Rosen Plevneliev	Ivo Josipovic
President > Profile	<p>Rosen Plevneliev won the presidential elections in a run-off in October 2011, beating Socialist candidate Ivaylo Kalfin. </p> <p>He took office in January 2012 for a five-year term in a post that carries few real powers. </p> <p>As the candidate of the then-ruling centre-right GERB party, Mr Plevneliev&#039;s victory was expected to bolster the government&#039;s push for painful economic reforms. </p> <p>When the government of Boyko Borisov collapsed in February 2013 following mass protests over high electricity prices, Mr Plevneliev appointed a caretaker government before fresh elections in May resulted in the formation of a technocratic government headed by Plamen Oresharski.</p> <p>Before becoming president, Mr Plevneliev was construction minister in the GERB-dominated government of Boyko Borisov. Prior to that, he ran his own building and development company.</p>	<p>Social Democrat Ivo Josipovic was elected for a five-year term in January 2010. He pledged to fight corruption and help Croatia achieve EU membership.</p> <p>The role of the president is largely ceremonial. He proposes the prime minister but it is for parliament to approve the nomination. </p> <p>The president can dissolve parliament and call elections.</p>
President > Summary	President Plevneliev has overseen several changes of government	Croatian President Ivo Josipovic
Prime minister	Plamen Oresharski	Zoran Milanovic
Prime minister > Profile	<p>Plamen Oresharski was confirmed new prime minister at the head of a Socialist-backed technocrat government in May 2013, ending months of political impasse. </p> <p>Bulgaria had been without a permanent administration since the previous February, when street protests against low living standards toppled a government led by the centre-right GERB party.</p> <p>Mr Oresharski, a professor of finance at Sofia&#039;s University for National and World Economy, was put forward by the Socialists as a Bulgarian version of Italy&#039;s respected former technocrat prime minister Mario Monti, after snap elections.</p> <p>Former premier Boyko Borisov&#039;s GERB party, which won the vote, had failed to find partners to govern, leaving the second-placed Socialists to name a new prime minister.</p> <p>Assuming office, Mr Oresharski warned that Bulgaria is &quot;in a deep institutional crisis, continuing economic depression and worsening disintegration of society&quot;.</p> <p>But as Oresharski&#039;s government quickly lost support amid allegations of corrupt ties with business groups, anti-government protests continued.</p> <p>Protesters&#039; anger against Mr Oresharski&#039;s government were inflamed by the appointment - later reversed by parliament - of controversial media mogul Delyan Peevski as head the national security agency. Some accuse the cabinet of being backed by a &quot;Red Mafia&quot;.</p> <p>A finance minister in a Socialist-led coalition between 2005 and 2009, Mr Oresharski won praise for implementing a key reform in Bulgaria&#039;s taxation system.</p> <p>He was also part of the team that oversaw the introduction of an IMF-led currency board regime in 1997 - pegging the national currency, the lev, to the euro at a fixed rate - that stabilised the economy and is still in place.</p>	<p>Zoran Milanovic became prime minister after his four-party centre-left coalition bloc defeated the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in elections in December 2011.</p> <p>The HDZ had held power for most of the previous two decades, but had come to be seen as mired in corruption - a view that was confirmed when former HDZ prime minister Ivo Sanader was put on trial for corruption in November 2011. </p> <p>Riding a tide of popular anger over government graft and economic stagnation, the Kukuriku (&quot;cock-a-doodle-doo&quot;) bloc led by Mr Milanovic&#039;s own Social Democratic Party (SDP) won 81 seats in the 151-seat national assembly. The SDP took 61 of those seats.</p> <p>Mr Milanovic&#039;s chief election pledges were to revitalise the struggling economy and prepare Croatia for EU membership.</p> <p>His government adopted tough austerity measures in an effort to avoid a further downgrade in the country&#039;s credit rating - which by the end of 2010 had deteriorated to just a notch above junk status - revive industry and attract foreign investment.</p> <p>Mr Milanovic&#039;s efforts to restructure industry - especially the country&#039;s ailing shipyards - and cut back on public spending in order to meet the conditions for EU entry brought the government into conflict with the unions and dampened enthusiasm for EU membership.</p> <p>Unemployment has remained stubbornly high. Shortly before the centre-left coalition came to power the jobless rate stood at just under 18%; by February 2013 it was closer to 19%, with youth unemployment at 51%.</p> <p>On the eve of Croatia&#039;s EU accession in July 2013, Mr Milanovic acknowledged that the bloc&#039;s economic woes had undermined the Croatian people&#039;s support for membership, but insisted that there were still many good reasons for joining.</p> <p>Zoran Milanovic joined the SDP in 1999 and became the party&#039;s president in June 2007, in an election that followed the death of the party&#039;s founder, veteran Croatian politician Ivica Racan, two months earlier.</p> <p>He then led the SDP into the November 2007 general election, which it narrowly lost.</p> <p>He was born in Zagreb in 1966 and after studying law at university embarked on a diplomatic career. In 1994, he went to Nagorno-Karabakh on a peace mission on behalf of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and was the first Croatian citizen to serve in this role.</p> <p>He is married, and has two sons.</p>
Prime minister > Summary	Plamen Oresharski became prime minister in the midst of a severe crisis	Zoran Milanovic has been a keen advocate of EU membership

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