The Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Ivailo Kalfin, has just started a blog.
What I find interesting here is the “about” section:
With this weblog I would like to enter a discussion about some of the issues that are on the top of the agenda of Bulgaria’s foreign policy, the developments in the European Union, the major challenges of today’s world. I really appreciate the opportunity to use the democratic web space for such a discussion. I expect various comments. My intention is to write as often as possible. The languages? Your choice using English, French, Spanish, Russian or Bulgarian. Please be generous if you find any typing or grammar mistake, especially if this is not in my mother tongue. Nobody’s perfect…
I find that rather sweet.
Foreign Minister Kalfin is 42 years old; he’s an economist who identifies as a Social Democrat; he has a Masters degree from Loughborough University in Leicestershire.
– Bleg: are there any other European Ministers with blogs? And if so, are any of them remotely worth reading? I would expect any such blogs to be rather bland and feeble, but Europe is a big place. Are there any surprises out there?
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November 1st, 2006 at 8:43 am
Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs, Carl Bildt, blogs. But he hasn’t posted anything since October 7, the day after he was appointed. The social democats had an election blog where some ministers posted from time to time, though not very interesting.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:30 am
David Miliband….and don’t go saying he’s not European.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:53 am
Dutch finance minister Gerrit Zalm has been blogging regularly for years. You can find his blog (in Dutch) here:
http://www.minfin.nl/nl/organisatie/ministerzalm/weblog
November 1st, 2006 at 10:57 am
David Miliband, UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, has a blog, here.
November 2nd, 2006 at 10:53 am
There’s a bunch of Finnish ministers who’re blogging, including the prime minister (the one who in the EU group photos looks like a butler), but only the foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja writes in English -at least during the EU presidency.
http://formin.finland.fi/public/default.aspx?nodeid=34772&contentlan=2&culture=en-US&page=1&listMode=1
November 2nd, 2006 at 3:29 pm
[Troll wishes to refer to Margot Wallström's blog, unfortunately invokes Godwin's Law.
http://weblog.jrc.cec.eu.int/page/wallstrom
November 2nd, 2006 at 10:41 pm
I think Slovenia’s president had one. He’s a pretty eccentric guy, but I don’t think it came across there.
November 3rd, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Does the vice-president of the EC count?
November 8th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende has a blog as well: http://www.janpeterbalkenende.nl/ in Dutch of course.
January 15th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Most of his message sounds a bit generic like a press release but he also seems to have a slight since of humor, which really makes for a good blog, particularly if it will center around politics. Lets see where this goes.