With a full two years left before the end of President Georgi Purvanov’s term, one has to wonder whether the Bulgarian head of state has reached some sort of political senility, an affliction that strikes politicians in the twilight of their careers. There is no other conclusion left to draw after hearing Purvanov ask the Cabinet on September 18 to demand the energy portfolio in the European Commission.

The reasoning? "The position that Bulgaria has earned in the European energy sector: as a regional hub and meeting place of pipelines, both gas and oil; as a prospect for developing nuclear energy, which will be at the heart of European energy – we could claim such a place."

The sane observer could say that Purvanov is laying a crude trap for Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, trying to build up expectations so that anything short of the energy commissioner job would seem a failure. However, when one remembers that Borissov’s predecessor, Sergei Stanishev, said earlier this summer that Bulgaria would try to get the energy portfolio, one has to wonder.

Perhaps Purvanov, one of the main lobbyists for Russian energy interests abroad – all in the name of recapturing Bulgaria’s dominant position on the electricity market in South Eastern Europe, of course – truly believes that his "grand slam" of projects (Belene, Bourgas-Alexandroupolis and South Stream) would benefit the European Union. Somehow, I doubt many in Brussels would agree with him.

While we’re at it, why not ask for a second portfolio in the Commission? Say, justice and home affairs. And we’d like fries with it too.

I am reminded of the complete mess Romania found itself in when it made its first nomination for European Commissioner in late 2006. The portfolio Bucharest received in the end, multilingualism, spoke loud volumes about Brussels’ displeasure at having its informal suggestions flouted.

Fortunately, Borissov does not appear to have taken the bait this time around, but he has in the past and will probably do so in the future.

Purvanov is not the first Bulgarian president to wage low-intensity political warfare against the prime minister, but he is the first that one can label a "lame duck". Having engineered the tripartite ruling coalition of 2005/09, Purvanov probably felt entitled to take over a big part of the executive’s policymaking authority, if not its powers, going far beyond what either of his two predecessors managed.

Suddenly bereft of those levers of influence he has grown so accustomed to, Purvanov does not seem content to see out what is left of his term as a ceremonial relic. Expect Purvanov to continue baiting Borissov in the future, if only to establish his own false credibility as Borissov’s main opponent and keep his political career alive.

Would it be too much to ask for you to ignore the noise, mister Prime Minister?