site.btaAfter TISP Vote Flip, Parliament Votes Down Plan to Strip MPs of Security Detail

After a re-vote and a vote flip by There Is Such a People (TISP), Parliament Wednesday rejected a bill amending the National Service for Protection (NSP) Act, that would have stripped MPs of NSP security detail. The bill was submitted by Ivaylo Mirchev and a group of deputies from Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB). The proposal would have focused the service solely on individuals holding high state offices as defined by law.

The vote count was 99 in favor, 95 against, and 28 abstentions.

The re-vote and rejection followed an initial vote in favour of the proposed legislation.

Initially, the amendments were supported by CC-DB, Vazrazhdane, There Is Such a People (TISP), Alliance for Rights and Freedoms, Velichie, MECh and 4 BSP - United Left MPs (8 MPs from the coalition abstained and 1 voted against). GERB-UDF, MRF - New Beginning and 4 independent MPs voted against with 1 independent MP abstaining. Following a 30-minute break initiated by MRF - New Beginning, all 16 TISP MPs changed their votes to "abstain", which led to the rejection in the re-vote. One BSP - United Left MP also switched from "in favour" to "abstain". 

“The goal of this bill is very clear: to show that MPs are not ‘special,’ and that NSP has no reason to protect us just because we are parliamentarians,” said one of the bill’s sponsors, Bozhidar Bozhanov (CC–DB). He emphasized that NSP’s role should be to protect the Chair of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister, the President, and other positions specified by law. Bozhanov cited the protection assigned to the leader of MRF - New Beginning, which he said is more extensive than even the Parliament leader's security detail.

“It is known that Delyan Peevski, Ahmed Dogan, and Boyko Borissov have had NSP protection,” said MP Zlatan Zlatanov (Vazrazhdane). He argued that MPs should not receive such services and suggested that the Ministry of Interior could handle their safety instead.

Nikolay Radulov (MECh) welcomed the idea of limiting the circle of protected individuals but added that the protection for deputy chairs of the institutions listed in the NSP law should also be shortened.

After the first vote, Natalia Kiselova (BSP–United Left) stated that she voted against the proposal, arguing that the roles of the Interior Ministry and NSP are different: NSP protects specifically threatened individuals, while the Ministry ensures public order. She added that the populism dominating the chamber seemed wrong to her.

Following the first reading and approval of the bill, Bozhanov (CC–DB) requested its adoption on second reading as well. The chair of the session, Kostadin Angelov (GERB–UDF), noted that during the debate, proposals for amendments between first and second reading had been mentioned, including one by Vazrazhdane but an MP of this group declared that they support the bill due to high public expectations.

Manoil Manev (GERB–UDF) urged caution, noting that the bill had been deemed “unworkable” during the Internal Security and Public Order Committee debate and achieved nothing. He also warned of potential risks to NSP employees’ labor rights.

Hamid Hamid (MRF–New Beginning) drew Angelov’s attention to a request for a re-vote that should have been addressed immediately, but the chair did not act. Hamid then requested a 30-minute break, after which the re-vote took place.

After the bill was rejected in the plenary session, some MPs who had supported it criticized There Is Such a People (TISP) for changing their vote. TISP parliamentary group chair Toshko Yordanov said he owed no explanation for his group’s decisions. “It’s clear that what you are doing is for your pre-election campaign,” Yordanov said. Addressing CC–DB, he added: “If you hadn’t tried to rush this through in the plenary without allowing it to go through the committee for amendments, we would have voted according to our own positions.”