Bulgaria’s Parliament elects State Agency for National Security chief to head Dossier Commission
In a vote after four hours of debate on May 28, Bulgaria’s National Assembly voted in a new Dossier Commission – the body empowered to expose those in public life who worked for the communist-era secret services – with the commission to be headed by Plamen Tonchev, until now the chairman of the State Agency for National Security (SANS).
Voting Tonchev into the position as head of the Dossier Commission was backed by 120 votes, from Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF – which had nominated him – as well as governing coalition members the Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left and ITN, and with the backing of Magnitsky Act-sanctioned Delyan Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning.
Critics of the nomination, including We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, have seen the move to shift Tonchev as intended to create a vacancy at SANS to be filled by a person of Peevski’s choosing.
The Dossier Commission was created by statute in December 2006, and former BSP MP Evtim Kostadinov was elected its first head in 2007, with a term ending in 2012. Kostadinov remained in office long after that, with Tonchev the first person to succeed him.
The Commission has exposed thousands of people who worked for State Security and the Bulgarian People’s Army military intelligence and has been the subject of repeated calls from pro-Russian political forces for it to be shut down.
Those calls were repeated in the May 28 debate by pro-Russian minority party Vuzrazhdane, with its MPs taking to the floor repeatedly, prolonging the debate.
GERB-UDF initially had proposed former Ombudsman Konstantin Trenchev to head the Dossier Commission, but in April, Borissov’s coalition got Parliament to terminate the initial procedure, and in May proposed a new line-up, now with Tonchev to head the commission with Trenchev as his deputy.
Tonchev became head of SANS in 2021, at the time of a caretaker government appointed by President Roumen Radev.
Notable events during Tonchev’s time as head of SANS have included the agency calling into question the security of machine voting, and the agency’s role in the expulsion of more than 80 Russian “diplomatic staff” from Bulgaria.
Others elected to the commission include former MP and former ambassador Alexander Yordanov, former Interior Ministry chief secretary Georgi Kostov, and BSP – United Left nominees municipal legal adviser Plamen Kostov – who becomes secretary of the commission – former Pernik municipal councillor and former National Assembly employee Kiril Kirilov, Supreme Administrative Court member Sevdalina Chervenkova-Minkova, and ITN nominees private sector employee Vladimir Vladimirov and security sector employee Emil Trifonov.
None of the elected members of the commission has experience in the activities that this state body is engaged in.
(Photo of Tonchev via BNT)
For exclusive subscriber-only access to The Sofia Globe’s analysis and commentary on events in Bulgaria, please sign up to our page on Patreon:
