site.btaNational Security Service Chief Tonev Ready to Resign

Major General Emil Tonev, head of Bulgaria’s National Service for Protection (NSP), has expressed his willingness to resign from his post following an incident involving the service and journalist Sonia Koltuklieva, the service said in a press release on Friday. Under Article 8(4) of the National Service for Protection Act, the head of the NSP can be removed by the President after coordination with the Council of Ministers.

Earlier in the day, President Iliana Iotova said she would seek Tonev’s resignation.

Video footage of Thursday's incident outside the Progressive Bulgaria headquarters shows an NSP officer pushing PIK journalist Sonya Koltuklieva to the ground after she opened the door of the Parliament Chair's car to ask a question. The journalist reportedly fractured her shoulder in the fall and is awaiting surgery. The officer was detained in the early hours of Friday.

An internal inquiry ordered by the NSP chief into the actions of security personnel during an event involving a person under the service’s protection on October 22, 2026, is under way, the NSP said.

Some members of the security team will be suspended from duty until the inquiry is completed. Disciplinary action will be taken if wrongdoing is established, the statement goes.