With the false start surrounding the deputy prime minister with responsibility for fair elections, who resigned within 24 hours, and with yesterday's appointments of regional governors who have a political background, the impartiality of the caretaker cabinet is at risk. This was stated by BSP Chairman Krum Zarkov at a press conference after the first meeting of the party's new Executive Bureau, BTA reports.
We call on the government to hear the criticism very quickly and to act so that the very idea of fair elections and its way of working is not tainted, he added.
The Executive Bureau recalls that the institute of "caretaker government" is enshrined in the Constitution in order to ensure an impartial arbitrator and a greater guarantee of fair elections. With the recent changes to the Constitution, unfortunately, conditions have been created for this not to be the case, but nevertheless every official cabinet is obliged to guarantee its political impartiality, Zarkov pointed out.
He pointed out that there are legitimate concerns that these regional governors are engaged with one of the political forces that will participate in the elections. It is normal for this to be from the factions of the PP-DB, as Prime Minister Gyurov also comes out of this configuration. We warn him that he will be judged on how he conducts the elections and he should avoid giving rise to such accusations, Zarkov commented. We need to have an impartial arbitrator, not a party cabinet, he pointed out.
The Deputy Chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party-Sofia Ivan Takov commented that the appointment of Vyara Todeva as the regional governor of Sofia City is a huge provocation to the socialist party. She has already been a regional governor once and, as you well remember, she cut down the Monument to the Soviet Army with a flex, he pointed out. In his words, this is an outrageous decision that costs the state hundreds of thousands of leva, which may already be more - once for dismantling, a second time for guarding the cut figures and a third time for guarding the surrounding area around the monument. All 28 regional governors were replaced at once, we can see that all of them are party creatures, which raises many questions, commented Ivan Takov.
The Chairman of the BSP Krum Zarkov also commented on the meeting of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) convened this week with regard to the acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafovo. The BSP Executive Bureau believes that Borislav Sarafov is performing the functions of Prosecutor General in violation of the law, in this sense he is not illegitimate, he is illegal and it is high time that the institutions that are related to this issue, first of all the SJC, ascertain this obvious fact and take the necessary measures, Zarkov said.
Regarding the changes in the Ministry of Interior (MI), the Chairman of the BSP said that the Minister of Interior is obviously initiating major changes in the MI, which concern the Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General, and there have also been reports of regional directors. Let's see what the final results of these actions will be, because yesterday, as far as I understand, they were looking for each other, he added.
When asked whether Rumen Radev (president from 2017 to 2026) would run in a coalition with the BSP in the upcoming elections, Zarkov commented that there had been no such talks.