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Thousands in Bulgaria protest against nomination of new SANS chairman

15 June 2013 01:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Several thousand of people gathered in front of the building of Council of Ministers in Sofia on Friday evening, protesting the nomination of the new chairman of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The protest, starting around 6:30 pm local time, continued for about 4 hours with police maintaining the order.

The local media reported Friday that Bulgaria's National Assembly elected Delyan Peevski chairman of SANS without debate in the parliament, which sparked public protests and the strong reaction of the opposition party.

President Rosen Plevneliev, from the GERB party which lost the parliamentary elections this year, urged the National Assembly to immediately review its resolution and called an extraordinary meeting of the Consultative Council on National Security on June 20.

"I believe that it's better for the nation that the chairman of SANS be elected publicly in the parliament with the public debate," said Plevneliev.

GERB Chairman Boyko Borissov called on Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski to resign in order to save his reputation.

However, Oresharski has defended the nomination of Peevski, saying the appointment today is a step in the overall process of reforming the special services.

"We deliberately sought an outside expert to head SANS, and I believe this nomination is appropriate. His priorities are clearly set: reinstatement of statehood, including the elimination of contraband channels," Oresharski told reporters.

Delyan Peevski, the 32-year-old media mogul, is now member of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. He was deputy minister of state policy for disaster management in 2005 but was dismissed two years later and investigated over corruption allegations. The investigation was later terminated because of failure of collecting evidence.