President Rumen Radev with new criticism of the Prime Minister over the demand for the dismissal of the head of SANS

President Rumen Radev expressed new criticism towards Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov on November 6 during a round table on the opportunities for modernization of the Bulgarian army through the application of affordable innovative technologies.

President Rumen Radev commented on Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov's demand for the resignation of State Agency for National Security (SANS) Chair Plamen Tonchev Radev noted that the resignation was sought due to Tonchev's complying with the law rather than breaking it.

"The real motives have been known for a long time. We heard them in that audio recording (of a meeting of the National Council of "We Continue the Change" held online on the evening of May 21, made public by MP Radostin Vasilev) and they are aimed at controlling the services. A government is strong by obeying the law, not by positioning itself above it. I listened carefully to the Prime Minister's statement on Friday night. The SANS Act clearly states the grounds on which the chairman of SANS can be dismissed. Lack of confidence on the part of the Prime Minister is not one of them. According to the Prime Minister's logic, the government itself should resign immediately because the vast majority of Bulgarians do not trust it. They don't trust each other in the assemblage either, (the word frequently used to refer to the cooperation between the power holders in the government – WCC-DB and GERB-UDF) but they have clung tightly to each other for the sake of survival," Rumen Radev stressed.

"From the motives presented by the Prime Minister, one is left with the impression that Plamen Tonchev's resignation is sought not because he has broken the law, but because he has respected the law. The government should rather focus its attention to the deputy minister of e-government, Mihail Stoynov, from whom the sabotage of the electoral process actually started," the Head of State said.

"Some things in the Prime Minister's statement on Friday evening are also disturbing, such as PM Denkov's request to have SANS inform him in advance about upcoming protests, about upcoming protests by energy workers, for example, as this suggests that Denkov misunderstands the Agency's role and functions. We cannot expect this to be an agency to fight and suppress just social demands and protests. The fact, again from the Prime Minister's statement, that SANS should have agreed in advance to the report of a documented breach by the Deputy Minister of e-Government. Does this mean that the Prime Minister wants to soften this report to a position that is favourable to the government. In my view, SANS must provide objective information, regardless of whether someone likes it or not."

"When SANS gives information about Russian spies, whether it is one, three or seventy in all - it is accepted as absolutely reliable, as truth, with unquestioning confidence. But when SANS provides information that is not in the interests of the government, there is real hysteria. The government should get their standards right, they have to be objective."

Rumen Radev commented on election day:

"Thank you to all the citizens who came out and voted. Every new mayor comes with an expectation of changes for the better, but this is a big responsibility. The local government will have to cope with the record low turnout, which inevitably reduces legitimacy."

"These elections are a serious signal to the political class and to party democracy, because in these elections Bulgarians massively turned their backs on them. This should worry us all."

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The President was referring to аn audio recording of a meeting of members of "We Continue the Change" (WCC), which was made public by a break-away WCC MP in May 2023 and which shows the party discussing a need to purge the security services; agreement to replace heads of the special services (State Agency National Security, National Security Service, etc.) with names that are "cleared with the embassy"; minimize the President’s clout; get rid of appointees of GERB or the President in the Ministry of Interior structures and the government agencies, among many other things. (Ed.note)