site.btaPeevski Taking Security Services by Force with Affiliated Parties - President Radev

Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, President Rumen Radev said that Movement for Rights and Freedoms chairperson and MRF – New Beginning Floor Leader Delyan Peevski and “his affiliated parties” are taking the security services by force. Radev was commenting on recent changes that would allow the National Assembly to elect the heads of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), the State Intelligence Agency, and the Technical Operations State Agency, instead of having them appointed by presidential decree.

“In 2013, there was an outcry over Peevski’s appointment to SANS, and now the same Peevski is taking the services by force together with his allied parties,” Radev said.

These changes will ultimately make the services serve the political interests of those in power. The services will be used not only to manipulate elections and cover up theft but also to gather compromising material on opponents and silence any opposition. The judiciary is already being used for these purposes,” the head of State said. “The changes are destroying the balance among institutions. The assemblage [a term used with a negative connotation to refer to the formation of governments by politically incompatible entities] has hijacked the Constitution, and Peevski is eroding what is left of it, just as he is doing to political parties: first the MRF, now GERB, and others are next,” Radev added.

When asked how he would respond if his powers were taken away, the President said “Bulgarians should react because this is a blow to democracy with long-term negative consequences.”

Radev dismissed a claim by Peevski that statutes are being drafted and a party formed within the president’s administration. “I am not responsible for some people’s paranoia. There is an area of psychology that addresses that,” he said. “My statute is the Constitution, and I will defend it to the end while I am president,” Radev noted.

The public is already beginning to push back against the growing arbitrariness, he added. “The bad news for those in power is that this is only the beginning. I am confident the battle for democracy will be won by free Bulgarians. I expect more and more people to react to this spreading arbitrariness,” Radev said.

The head of State attended a presentation of a phototype edition of the Macedonian Almanac by the Macedonian Patriotic Organization that marked the 85th anniversary of the original publication.