Bulgaria’s July elections: 50 candidates worked for communist-era secret service
Fifty of the candidates from various parties competing in Bulgaria’s July 2021 early parliamentary elections worked for the country’s communist-era secret service State Security, according to disclosures by the Dossier Commission on June 29.
The party with the most former State Security people among its candidates is Kornelia Ninova’s Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), with 11.
The BSP candidate MPs who worked for State Security are Boiko Klechkov, Velizar Enchev, Georgi Bogdanov, Dobromir Zadgorski, Marin Cherkezov, Novko Popov, Radoslav Kutiynski, Roumen Gechev, Sashko Lozanov, Spas Blagov and Tasko Ermenkov.
The BSP is followed by former socialist prime minister Zhan Videnov’s Left Union for a Pure and Holy Bulgaria, with eight, including Videnov himself.
The other former State Security people in Videnov’s party are Vladimir Chuchuyev, Dimitar Stoyanov, Diyan Yordanov, Nako Stefanov, Radko Handzhiev and Hristo Monov.
The ultra-nationalist “Bulgarian Patriots” coalition of the VMRO, National Movement for the Salvation of Bulgaria and Volya has five and Volen Siderov’s Ataka three.
The “Bulgarian Patriots” former State Security people are Hristo Smolenov, Alexander Urumov, Boyan Chukov, Georgi Georgiev and Slavi Netsov. Ataka’s are Boris Zlatarev, Emil Vladimirov and Radko Radev.
The Movement for Rights and Freedoms, founded by former State Security agent Ahmed Dogan, has five: Daud Ibrahim, Mehmed Yumer, Ramadan Atalay, Sando Zahariev and Stoyan Stoyanov.
Fugitive gambling boss Vassil Bozhkov’s Bulgarian Summer has four: Vanyo Yanev, Yordan Bogatinov, Lyudmil Rangelov and Roumen Hristov.
Boiko Borissov’s GERB-Union of Democratic Forces coalition has two, Martin Ivanov and Stanislav Andreev.
Cable television presenter Slavi Trifonov’s ITN party also has two: Nikolai Radulov and Ivan Hinovski.
The “Rise Up! Mobsters Out!” coalition has two, Vangel Arabadzhiev and Darin Kinov.
Others named by the Dossier Commission include pro-Russian Vuzhrazhdane’s Angel Rusev and Zhivko Chapurov, MIR’s Ventsislav Ivanov, Movement Together for Change’s Vulcho Arabadzhiev, Party of the Greens’ Georgi Gechev and Hristo Dunchev, Bulgarian National Union New Democracy’s Evtim Boyanov and Podem’s Nikola Nikolov and Hristofor Dochev.
The State Security count in the coming parliamentary elections is lower than before Bulgaria’s regular elections in April 2021, when 87 were identified.
Bulgaria’s constitution does not allow lustration. Those in political life in Bulgaria who have been named as former State Security and gone on to elected office include – among several others – former president Georgi Purvanov (Agent Gotse) and VMRO leader and former defence minister Krassimir Karakachanov (Agent Ivan).
The Democratic Bulgaria coalition, responding to the June 29 disclosures by the Dossier Commission, issued a media statement emphasising that it was alone among all the parties and coalitions seen by pollsters as having a prospect of election to the 46th National Assembly that had no former State Security people among its candidate MPs.
(Archive photo: Dossier Commission)
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