Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry top official resigns, after clash between government and president
Bulgarian Interior Ministry chief secretary Petar Todorov said on August 30 that he was submitting his resignation, the latest development in a saga that began a fortnight ago with the Nikolai Denkov government asking President Roumen Radev to decree Todorov’s dismissal.
Radev refused to oust Todorov, who was appointed in August 2021 by a caretaker government appointed by Radev.
Prime Minister Denkov and Interior Ministry Kalin Stoyanov, in office in the pro-Western government elected by Parliament in June 2023, complained of a lack of communication with Todorov and incompetence in his role at the ministry.
Stoyanov said that what he called Todorov’s shortcomings in organising and controlling the ministry were to blame for the deaths of six police in the line of duty over a very short space of time.
Radev, continuously antagonistic towards the Denkov government, reportedly officially told the government in a letter on August 30 that he was refusing to decree Todorov’s dismissal. Radev has described the request to fire Todorov as “political” and part of a “full-scale purge” of the ministry.
Stoyanov responded that with Radev’s refusal “we will continue to work with difficulty”.
Todorov told reporters that Stoyanov’s request for his resignation had no basis. He described Stoyanov’s allegations as “ugly” and declined to address them individually.
“The current leadership of the Interior Ministry has no will to continue the fight for legality,” Todorov said.
He said that the request for his removal had nothing to do with his work, but was linked to the “record of a party meeting”, a reference to an illicit recording of a meeting of leaders and members of We Continue the Change, where changes to government posts were discussed.
Todorov thanked Radev for his “trust and support”.
(Photo via BNT)
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