PROFILE-Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boiko Borisov
Position: Bulgarian Prime Minister
Incumbent: Boiko Borisov, 55, born June 13, 1959
Term: Borisov became prime minister after his centre-right party GERB won a snap election in October 2014. He will be eligible for re-election at the next parliamentary vote in 2018.
Key Facts: Borisov first became prime minister in the autumn of 2009, promising to clean up Bulgaria's image as the most corrupt European Union state by rooting out endemic graft and taming organised crime.
-- He managed to push the Balkan country through the global financial crisis largely unscathed, but spending cuts and a freeze on salaries and pensions led to massive anti-poverty protests in the spring of 2013 that toppled his government.
-- A former firefighter and bodyguard to dignitaries such as late communist dictator Todor Zhivkov and ex-king Simeon Saxe-Coburg, Borisov was appointed to the powerful position of chief secretary in the interior ministry after Saxe-Coburg's party came to power in 2001.
-- He resigned from the post in 2005 over conflicts with the ruling Socialists' interior minister at the time, and later in the year was elected mayor of the capital Sofia.
-- In 2006, straight-talking Borisov established the rightist GERB party to fight what he called a corrupt and failed political elite.
-- Borisov has won the hearts of many Bulgarians for his "macho" style and street language. He has a black belt in karate and is a fervent tennis and soccer player.
-- During his last term in office, Borisov pushed ahead with building highways and infrastructure, but backtracked on painful reforms of the inefficient pension, healthcare and education systems.
-- After his government was toppled by street protests, Borisov won the most seats in a snap election in the spring of 2013. Other parties refused to back him, however, and GERB was forced to make way for a Socialist-led administration.
-- Borisov says he will work for Bulgaria to join the EU's banking union, appoint a new central bank governor and overhaul the judiciary and administration in order to tackle corruption and attract investment.
-- Borisov's reliance on the goodwill of other parties to stay in power raises questions of how stable his government can be and whether it will last a full term. (Editing by Matthias Williams and Catherine Evans)
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