site.btaMRF - New Beginning Proposes Ending National Protection Service Transport for President’s Administration

Kalin Stoyanov, MP from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) – New Beginning has proposed amendments to the National Service for Protection (NSP) Act, aimed at discontinuing the transport services that the NSP now provides for the members of the President’s administration. The proposal is laid out in a bill published on Parliament’s website on Monday.

The proposed legislation repeals item 14 of Article 14 of the NSP Act, which makes the members of the President's administration eligible for NSP transportation services, as it contradicts Article 21, which enlists officials who are entitled to specialized transport and the President’s staff are not there. 

Stoyanov argued that such a privilege for the employees of one administration reduces the NSP to an ordinary transport company.

The proposed revisions escalate a back-and-forth between Stoyanov and President Radev. It started with a Facebook post by the MP four days ago where he commented on the President’s "excessively expanded motorcade of seven vehicles" in Varna, on August 10, and said that he asked the President's administration all kinds of details about the people on the President's delegation and their entitlement to NSP services. The President responded on August 17, asking in a Facebook post why members of Parliament are guarded both by the NSP and the Gendarmerie, including during all of their trips abroad.

Also on Facebook, the co-chair of Yes, Bulgaria, Ivaylo Mirchev, took up the issue saying that President Radev's post referred to Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) leader Delyan Peevski, who is provided with the highest level of protection by the NSS, including a top-class armoured vehicle (Mercedes S680 Guard), gendarmerie, and commando forces until recently. 

On Monday, Stoyanov explained in his proposal that the revisions to the NSS Act " aim to eliminate the opportunity for the members of the President's administration to use NSS as a private transport company".