The parliament overturned the presidential veto on the changes to the Law on the State Agency for National Security (SANS) and re-adopted them on second reading.
The changes to the law were supported by 127 MPs, 92 were against, and one MP abstained.
The text remains the same, according to which the chairman of SANS is elected by the National Assembly upon a proposal from the Council of Ministers. From now on, instead of two, he will have three deputies. Until now, the head of the service was appointed by decree of the head of state.
The re-vote passed with 127 votes “in favor“ – from GERB, MRF-New Beginning, 16 deputies from the BSP, ITN and independent members of parliament. There were 92 against, including deputies from “Vazrazhdane“, MECH, “Velicie“, APS, two from the BSP and 28 from PP-DB. The only vote “abstaining“ came from PP-DB.
The changes eliminate the previous order, in which the Council of Ministers proposed a name to the president, and he decided whether to sign the decree. From now on, the parliament will appoint the heads of the National Security Agency (DANS), the Military Intelligence Agency (DAR) and the Eavesdropping Agency (DATO) upon the proposal of the Council of Ministers, with the president remaining in charge only in the procedure for appointing the head of the National Security Agency (NSA). At the same time, the head of state no longer has the right for his administration to use the service's cars.
On Wednesday, Radev also vetoed the laws for the other two security services, but the parliament's internal committee overrode the veto for DANS, which allowed the item to be included on the agenda as an emergency.
The changes were introduced after the president refused to sign a decree appointing Denyo Denev as head of DANS, and the cabinet accused Radev of blocking the appointments for months.
During the debate in the plenary hall, deputies from “Vazrazhdane“ accused the ruling party of trying to “occupy“ the security services and take away all powers of the president.