site.btaAppointment of Interior Ministry Secretary General Has Been Coordinated with President Verbally, PM Zhelyazkov Says

Approached by journalists in Vienna on Friday, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov commented that the appointment of a Secretary General of the Interior Ministry had been coordinated with the President verbally. "Those are topics that remain open. It is not proper for me to mention names on any occasion," he added. He was asked to comment on an exchange of accusations between the head of State and GERB leader Boyko Borissov earlier in the day. 

On Friday, Borissov responded to criticism that the Interior Ministry lacks a professional leader by saying that is due to President Radev's refusal to approve a Secretary General. "Let Zhelyazkov say if he has proposed a new secretary general," Borissov urged. On their part, the President’s Office said they have not received a written proposal to coordinate the appointment of a Secretary General.

Zhelyazkov told journalists that since coordinating an appointment verbally is no longer respected, the Council of Ministers will propose as soon as possible that for all positions that require it, the appointments should happen after a complex interinstitutional procedure. In his words, as far as he knows, it was a matter of exchanged words. "I have always believed that when two gentlemen speak through the media, there is no need for a third. However, the President is right. The Council of Ministers has not proposed to him the appointment of persons in accordance with the law and the rules for the interinstitutional complex process of appointment, as in the case of ambassadors, the head of the State Agency for National Security, the Secretary General of the Interior Ministry. We have not formally adopted such a decision, because good institutional practices require to coordinate the appointment verbally in advance," Zhelyazkov commented. "We made such proposals at the very start of the Government's work. We are yet to receive a reply," he underscored. 

The Bulgarian Prime Minister is paying a two-day official visit to Vienna on Thursday and Friday at the invitation of Austrian Federal Chancellor Christian Stocker.