The time will come for new elections - presidential, maybe parliamentary, local, who knows when, and people who make a commitment to a specific political force instead of working for the interests of the state according to the Constitution cannot be elected to high-ranking positions in the special services and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio Prof. Veselin Vuchkov, Minister of Internal Affairs in the second GERB cabinet, now a lecturer in Criminal Law.
In the program – Nedelya 150" he commented on the proposal to take away the president's powers when appointing heads of the special services and warned what would happen if the new procedure became a legal norm.
"The topic of the security services is not new and the procedure must be preserved, regardless of the name of the prime minister, president and chairman of the National Assembly. in the changes proposed by the MRF-NN – in the CPC and the election of the director of the National Security Agency - I find the connection and it is to establish the head of the National Security Agency. I want it to be clearly understood, we are obviously moving towards a process of closing the CPC, which I criticized when this structure appeared, March 1, 2024, especially the granting of investigative functions", commented Prof. Vuchkov.
And he added:
"Because the MRF-NN bill is written illiterately and if the CPC is closed, its structures – the operational work through which corruption is intercepted will be transferred to SANS. This is a directorate "K", which until 2017 was a directorate in SANS and then in 2019 went to KONPI. This directorate "K" is in KONPI and will now again be housed in SANS. The change, the method of electing the chairman of SANS and closing the CPC, have an organic connection, because it is important who will control SANS and fight corruption."
According to the former interior minister, the chairman of SANS is the most important of all heads of special services.
"In my opinion, there is secret coordination of these political exercises. A parliamentary group is presenting something, but the goal is to put together a common picture of a puzzle so that control in the fight against corruption does not slip away from us," Prof. Vuchkov also pointed out.
He pointed out that there is fair criticism at the moment:
"But no one can deny that seizing presidential power is solely because of a specific person – the current Bulgarian president. It could be thought that the president would have more of an argument why he does not agree with a specific name, to regulate the service offices not to propose heads of services, but we should not agree that such a serious power should be taken away from the president."
He is categorical that all these changes do not take into account a balancing public interest.
"The desire to master the so-called fight against corruption – to fight it only where we like it – this is an important task of all rulers at all times. And those who created the regulatory framework for the CPC and the CPC, these are the PP-DB 3 years ago, when they ruled the country. And they bear enormous political guilt. But the mistake 3 years ago does not mean that we make the same mistake – to take control of the services", added the professor of Criminal Law.
He recommended that the balancing roles remain and not to reshape the State Anti-Corruption Agency:
"The biggest problem is that it is easy to close something, it is a little more difficult to create something like the State Anti-Corruption Agency, 2007, but it is more difficult to say to the public which institutions will fight high corruption in a transparent, legal manner. I do not see anything like that in the introduced changes."
Prof. Vuchkov admitted that he had read 6 chapters and 90 pages of the reasons for the PP-DB vote of no confidence and praised them for being well written and agreed with the theme of the conquered state and more precisely the feeling of a "conquered state".
"We do not have completely conquered institutions, but the direction and actions are undeniable", he said. And he admitted that the "disgusting remarks on the sidewalk in front of the National Assembly, (b. r. Peevski and Asen Vassilev), which obscure any meaningful talk "about reforms in the police, fire department and services on the eve of tomorrow's holiday", are not adequate:
"Can there be an independent state if we have kidnapped institutions and media. The topic is important and meaningful", said Prof. Vuchkov. He commented on the incident in Ruse with the beaten director of the ODMVR. And for him, the case is indicative of "diminished public trust in institutions":
"This is the smallest incident that shows political arrogance. Public anger can be ignited."