60% of Bulgarians believe people in power should be checked for links to communist-era secret services – poll
About 61.4 per cent of Bulgarians believe that people holding elected office or who are in positions of leadership should be checked to see whether they worked for the country’s communist-era secret services State Security and military intelligence.
This is according to a poll by the Exacta Research Group, which found that only 16 per cent of those surveyed did not believe this was necessary, while 22.6 per cent were undecided.
The results of the survey were presented at a conference in Sofia about the exposures by the Dossier Commission, the body charged by law with identifying people in various walks of public life who had ties to State Security or the Bulgarian People’s Army military intelligence.
The conference, organised by the Dossier Commission, was attended by representatives of equivalent bodies from Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, Slovenia, Hungary and the Czech Republic and Albania, as well as researchers and historians from Bulgaria.
The Exacta Poll, commissioned by the Dossier Commission in October 2017, found 48.8 per cent in favour of an independent body dealing with identifying collaborators of the communist-era secret services. About 23.3 per cent were against the continued existence of such a body, and 28.2 per cent were undecided.
About 55.7 per cent believed that the identities of State Security agents should be made public, while 22.7 per cent were against.
According to the survey, every fourth Bulgarian was interested in the work of the Commission.
Those most interested in the work of the Commission were men, people over the age of 50, highly educated and residents of capital city Sofia.
(Photo: Christa Richert/ sxc.hu)
