Bulgaria’s Parliament accepts resignation of anti-corruption commission head
Bulgaria’s National Assembly voted overwhelmingly on July 31 to accept the resignation of Plamen Georgiev as head of the country’s anti-corruption commission.
Three MPs voted against and three abstained.
Georgiev was elected to be the first to hold the post on March 8 2018. He was the nominee of the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s GERB party and the United Patriots, and defeated a rival nominated by the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party.
Georgiev had been on long leave since April 2019, after an investigation by prosecutors and the National Revenue Agency was announced into his failure to include in an official declaration of assets a 186 sq m terrace at the building in which he lives.
That came at a time when Bulgaria’s ruling majority was being rocked by allegations of cut-price property deals, which led to the resignations of a number of senior government figures.
Georgiev told journalists on July 31 that everything he had done was legal, he had bought nothing at cut price and he had not bought from related parties. He said that his decision was purely personal and a moral act.
“For myself, I am convinced that it was a deliberate attack, but I also have a family and hold a flawless reputation. I cannot allow myself to exaggerate anything,” he said, adding that he believed that the attacks emanated the attack comes from oligarchs who are were affected by his professional activity.
He said that he had been considering his decision to resign for months.
Georgiev said that he had not spoken to Borissov before resigning. He would return to his earlier job as a prosecutor, he said.
He has close personal protection as a result of threats to his life.
(Screenshot: BNT)
