In Haskovo, 18-year-old Magdalena was murdered. People are angry because the Ministry of Interior is neglecting the case. The callousness of the institutions in Bulgaria is increasingly apparent. They act slowly when it comes to the interests of ordinary people.
The tomatoes, yogurt and eggs thrown at the building of the Regional Police Department of the Ministry of Interior in Haskovo may fly to other directorates tomorrow. The apathy and neglect shown by the local police in the case of the murdered 18-year-old Magdalena has led citizens to protest - because of the increasingly obvious callousness of the institutions in Bulgaria, which are slow to act when it comes to the interests of ordinary people.
The girl, whose parents reported her missing on April 26, was found strangled after the 17-year-old accused of the murder pointed out the place where her body was found. Today is the funeral, and the head of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Haskovo, Ivan Rasokov, has submitted his resignation, requested by the Minister of Internal Affairs.
Rasokov's remark that Magdalena Ruseva was not kidnapped, but ran away from home, exploded the discontent. He tried to get away with the explanation that his statement was an operational staging, but it didn't work.
The mistaken public communication is not the only problem of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is causing an explosion of public energy, not for the first time. Behind it lies a deeper one - the Ministry of Internal Affairs has become a registrar of cases of violence and threats to the life and security of citizens. And the sentences that the perpetrators receive are increasingly at odds with the feeling of fair punishment.
Where is the justice?
"We forgot Siyana, it's time for Magdalena!", can be read on social networks. Only a few days ago, citizens carried posters with the inscription "We have no more children to kill!" because of the death of the 12-year-old girl on a deadly section of road that has not been repaired for years. Previously, Plovdiv residents protested in front of the city's Courthouse over the low sentence imposed on the brutally abused 5-year-old Adrian.
Last year, several thousand people gathered in front of the police in Targovishte to protest, demanding that the truth about the death of 24-year-old motorcyclist Momchil Georgiev be revealed. And today, citizens protested in front of the court in Stara Zagora over the court's decision to release a 38-year-old man accused of pedophilia on bail of 1,500 leva. Pornographic materials with children were found on his laptop, including photos with pornographic content of a child of an apparent age of no more than 4 years.
There are more and more cases when people, disgusted by the lack of justice and deafness of the institutions, protest - the only way to be heard. But protests do not solve systemic breakdowns, even if civil servants or police officers resign under public pressure. Such were filed in the case of the 58-year-old former wrestling champion Plamen Penev, who was killed in police custody in Stara Zagora. Initially, the Ministry of Interior tried to cover up the case, describing it as a "ridiculous incident", but after public pressure and media publications, the resignations were made. Nothing more.
Personnel selection and appointments in the Ministry of Interior, as well as in state departments, are subject to party, not public interests. In party selection, professional and career development do not matter, but loyalty and whether they will do services to the political force that has raised the respective figure.
Political calculations - more important than the lives of citizens?
It is no coincidence that police chiefs are replaced by every new government, be it regular or official, especially before elections. In the midst of an election campaign, such as the one for the elections on June 9, 2024, Ivan Rasolkov receives his appointment as head of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Haskovo. The order issued in May was signed by the then Minister of Interior Kalin Stoyanov, today an MP from "DPS-New Beginning". His current resignation will most likely lead to a reassignment to another position, such is the practice in the Ministry of Interior. In his place will come another, whose selection mechanism will not be any different and will play the same trick with the "operational combinations".
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is not in crisis, it is a symptom of the larger crisis in a country in which political calculations have greater weight than the lives and security of its citizens.
And when people stop believing that the institutions are their shield, they will no longer throw tomatoes, but stones.
***
This comment expresses the personal opinion of the author and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial office and the State Gazette as a whole.