Rumbles among socialists over Peevski appointment

A Bulgarian Socialist Party MP has distanced himself from the election of Movement for Rights and Freedoms MP and media owner Delyan Peevski to head the State Agency for National Security.

Peevski’s nomination was put to Parliament on June 14 by Plamen Oresharski, prime minister in the Bulgarian Socialist Party government, and approved 15 minutes later with the votes of MPs from the BSP and MRF.

BSP MP Georgi Kadiev sent an open letter to the media underlining that he did not support the candidacy of Peevski.

At an early-morning meeting of the BSP parliamentary caucus, when the nomination of Peevski was announced, Kadiev voted against it and when the nomination was put to Parliament, he had not voted, he said.

Kadiev, whose career mainly has been in municipal politics in Sofia, including as a failed mayoral candidate, said that he sought election to Parliament to “eradicate” Boiko Borissov’s party GERB, but also to “restore professionalism and integrity”.

The June 14 endorsement of Peevski went beyond any compromise that he could accept, he said. Kadiev said that he was prepared to leave Parliament “tomorrow” but did not believe that this would help anything.

According to a report by television station bTV, Oresharski told BSP MPs that he would resign if the nomination of Peevski was not accepted.

The BSP MPs were summoned to the morning meeting of the party’s parliamentary group by an SMS which said that attendance was compulsory, according to the report.

A resignation by Oresharski would be certain to precipitate new elections. The BSP currently is in government in spite of having run second in the May elections, and had the chance to form a government after GERB found itself in a National Assembly where it had no potential allies.

It is against this background that, once it was clear that there were BSP MPs unhappy at the choice of Peevski, the reported threat by Oresharski to quit was issued.

Oresharski, speaking to reporters after the election of Peevski, said briefly that the choice was the right one.

GERB leader Boiko Borissov told journalists that the Peevski appointment was the official signal that the Bulgarian Socialist Party had died.

“I am so shocked by what I have just heard that I cannot even believe it is happening,” Borissov said.

It was all over for the BSP, he said. “As of today, there is only one party ruling in Bulgaria and it is the MRF. The BSP no longer exists,” Borissov said.

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The Sofia Globe staff

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