Liberal Lilov to Head Party in Bulgaria

Bulgarian Communists elected liberal Politburo member Alexander Lilov as party chief today and booted dozens of conservatives from leadership posts to wrap up a crucial three-day congress dominated by the party’s reformist wing.

Lilov and three other reformers were named to the presidium of a new 153-member Supreme Party Council in the final hours of a dramatic all-night session that also saw the resignation of Prime Minister Georgi Atanasov and his entire Cabinet.

Lilov said the leadership changes mark a new beginning for the party, which Thursday declared it is breaking with its Stalinist past and forging ahead with radical political and economic reforms.

“This was an extraordinary congress not only because it was convened early but because . . . it freed the party of the political heritage of the near past”--the authoritarian regime of former hard-line leader Todor Zhivkov, Lilov said at a news conference.

A philosophy professor and one of Bulgaria’s best-known political reformers, Lilov replaced Peter Mladenov, who is expected to retain his post as president of the state council, or symbolic head of state.

Meanwhile today, Zhivkov was admitted to a hospital and placed under intensive care, the official BTA news agency said.

The agency said Zhivkov, 78, was under house arrest. It did not report his medical condition.

BTA said Zhivkov is still being investigated for misrule and corruption.

Mladenov was one of three elected to the presidium. The others were Gen. Dobri Dyhurov, the former national defense minister, and Andrei Lukanov, another liberal Politburo member regarded as a leading candidate to replace Atanasov as prime minister.