site.btaGERB Leader: Strong Security Services Needed amid Geopolitical Tensions

Speaking to the media in Parliament’s lobby on Thursday, GERB leader Boyko Borissov stressed that it is important for Bulgaria to have strong and well-organized security services in view of the current geopolitical situation. “If there is one issue that should trouble us to the point of keeping us awake at night, it is the war,” Borissov said.

According to him, relations between Europe and the United States on the one hand, and Russia on the other, have deteriorated, and attempts at an adequate response will not ease the situation.

Replying to a question about how GERB-UDF will vote on the bills seeking to strip the President of the power to appoint the heads of the security services, Borissov said: “When someone does not like something, he blocks it, but the services must function. As for his quotas, we wake up with his one-man decisions”.

Two bills on Parliament’s agenda propose changes to the authority responsible for appointing the heads of the State Intelligence Agency (SIA), the State Agency for National Security (SANS), and the State Agency Technical Operations (SATO). Under the draft legislation, the heads of these institutions are to be nominated by the Council of Ministers and elected by Parliament instead of being nominated by the Council of Ministers and appointed by presidential decree, as is the case now.

The amendments to the three laws regulating the matter were moved by seven MPs of the government coalition: GERB-UDF, the BSP - United Left and There Is Such a People (TISP).

Borissov said that for months, the services have remained “beheaded”. In his words, the head of State acts like a one-man ruler. He recalled being accused of protecting security chiefs appointed by President Radev. Borissov said that SANS acting head Denyo Denev, the State Intelligence Agency leadership, National Service for Protection Chief Major General Emil Tonev were appointed by Radev. “I will recommend that the GERB-UDF group vote for these people to stay,” he said.

Borissov also highlighted what he described as a success - an October 1, 2025 resolution by which the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) closed its 26-year-long post-monitoring dialogue with Bulgaria. “It took this Government, formed by this group of parties, to bring down this mechanism,” the GERB leader commented.