site.btaPresident Iotova Should Convene Consultative Council for National Security, Seek Consensus, GERB Leader Borissov Says

It would be appropriate for President Iliana Iotova to convene the Consultative Council for National Security and seek consensus there, GERB leader Boyko Borissov said in a video posted on his Facebook profile on Friday. Borissov is in Plovdiv, where he and the city's mayor, Kostadin Dimitrov, inspected the renovation of the Kosmos Cinema.

“Yesterday, I gave an example of how to deal with issues that require national consensus,” Borissov said. He added that Bulgarians do not like war. “They want to live peacefully. When there are bloody wars in Ukraine and Iran, it is difficult to uphold a national position,” Borissov said. “Yesterday, we demonstrated this as GERB,” he added.

Speaking about the changes in the regional directorates of the Interior Ministry, Borissov said that those involved in the elections have reason to believe that they have better people for the positions, but in this case, there are already protests against these people.

On March 1, caretaker Interior Minister Emil Dechev said that 23 out of a total of 28 regional directorates of the Interior Ministry had their directors replaced.

On Thursday, protesters demanded the resignation of the newly appointed Director of the Regional Directorate of the Interior Ministry in Plovdiv, Vasil Kostadinov. They blocked the ring road for about 20 minutes. The protest was organized by Atanaska Bakalova, the mother of Dimitar Malinov, who was killed in the Plovdiv village of Tsalapitsa in 2023. In August 2023, Kostadinov was dismissed from his position as director of the Plovdiv Regional Directorate due to the tension that arose in connection with the actions of the police after the murder of 24-year-old Malinov.