Bulgaria’s new government replaces all 28 district governors, axes deputy head of SANS
Bulgaria’s new government headed by Prime Minister Roumen Radev announced on May 13 that it had replaced all 28 district governors and had dismissed as Denyo Denev as deputy head of the State Agency for National Security (SANS).
The decisions were taken at the Radev Cabinet’s first regular meeting, five days after it was voted into office by Parliament.
Of the newly-appointed district governors, four have Interior Ministry backgrounds and two Defence Ministry backgrounds, including Plovdiv’s new district governor, Georgi Yanev, whose CV includes having been employed, respectively, by the Defence Ministry and SANS.
Changing district governors by a new government on taking office is traditional, though not mandatory, in Bulgaria.
The Andrei Gyurov caretaker government, at its first meeting after taking office, changed all 28, while previous governments customarily changed most or all, though not always all at once.
The dismissal of Denev was announced in a laconic statement, which gave no reasons for his dismissal.
When Denev was appointed deputy head of SANS in 2023, former prime minister and former We Continue the Change leader Kiril Petkov described Denev as Magnitsky Act-sanctioned Delyan Peevski’s man at the agency.
“In yet another attempt to control the institutions, the two-headed dictatorship wants to install Denyo Denev as the head of the State Agency for National Security, a man who proved his 100 per cent loyalty to Peevski-Borisov by fabricating the report against machine voting and actually eliminating machine voting for the local elections in 2023,” Petkov said at the time.
The Rossen Zhelyazkov government nominated Denev to become fully-fledged head of SANS, but then-president Roumen Radev refused to decree the appointment.
In response, the de facto ruling coalition of the time – GERB-UDF, Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and ITN – amended the law so that the head of SANS would not be appointed by presidential decree, but elected by Parliament. However, time ran out before Denev’s election was voted on by Parliament.
On taking office, Radev’s government appointed Stancho Stanev as deputy head of SANS, for a term of office of five years, starting May 8 2026. At also named Stanev as acting head of SANS.
Stanev had not previously been involved with SANS, having been a personal security guard to Radev while he was president, later moving on to the Customs Agency.
(Photo of the May 13 meeting of the Radev Cabinet: government.bg)
