site.btaGovernment Has Asked President to Decree Appointment of National Security Agency Acting Head for Full Tenure

The government has asked President Rumen Radev to decree the appointment of the acting head of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), Denyo Denev, for a full tenure, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov told the press in Burgas Tuesday. 

The Prime Minister stressed that this is a coordination procedure and that the law sets a one-month deadline for appointing a new SANS head.

The last regular SANS Chair, Plamen Tonchev, was sent to dead a commission in charge of communist-era secret service police files. 

The President has already made it clear that he would not allowing a promotion of Denyo Denev to the position of full SANS head. On August 30, as he commented the coordination procedure for appointing a new SANS chair, he said: “At the moment, politicians sanctioned for corruption by our strategic partners are carrying out a brutal purge at SANS and turning the agency into their own bludgeon. They are doing this through a nomination for which they want me to issue a decree. Let me be clear - it will not happen.” 

The Prime Minister said that they are waiting to see the President's official written response to the nomination - not just what he has already said the other day. "Talking via the news media is not a serious thing to do and creates mistrust in society," he added.

Asked to comment the "brutal purge at SANS" remark in particular, Zhelyazkov said that "there is total lack of understanding or disinformation" on the matter. He also said that "brutal purge" was "a metaphor". "There are no facts or anything to remind of the Stalinist methods or anything that would warrant the use of this terminology," the Prime Minister said.