Bulgaria Next PM Sets out to Fully Lift Lid on Communist-Era Files

Bulgaria’s new prime minister Boyko Borisov (pictured) has fervently defended the nomination of Bozhidar Dimitrov for minister without portfolio despite his collaboration for the secret services. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's incoming prime minister has vowed to deal with the issue of communist-era secrets in a conclusive manner and fulfill hopes for a full and final declassification of the files prepared by the country's intelligence services before the fall of the regime.

Talking to reporters in his hometown of Bankya on Friday, Boyko Borisov said he has approached the parliament, where his party GERB holds a majority, with a request to approve the full declassification of the files as quickly as possible.

The secret files issue came into the spotlight again on Thursday when it emerged that Boyko Borisov has nominated Bozhidar Dimitrov, Director of the National History Museum, for minister without portfolio despite his collaboration for the secret services.

As the right-wing parties in the Blue coalition cried foul, Borisov fervently defended the nomination, saying Dimitrov was awarded for being by his side in the darkest of times.

"I don't care what the other parties say," Borisov said angrily on Friday.

For years on end Bulgaria's politicians have been inching towards a further opening of the files, producing only unsatisfactory and politically compromised results.

A partial opening of the files under an anti-communist government in 1997 first gave over 25,000 Bulgarians access to their own dossiers, and led to the naming of around 150 state security collaborators (a parliamentary commission identified several MPs, ministers and candidates for public office as former agents).

However, in 2002 new legislation on access to information gave the power to declassify files to the successor bodies of the communist-era intelligence services. As a result, little progress was made in the direction of declassification.

More effective solutions were sought in the years afterwards and culminated in the establishment of the Files Commission in April 2007 as part of Bulgaria's long overdue efforts to finally face up to its totalitarian past and disclose who did what for the secret police under communism.

The list that the commission has prepared so far features Socialist President Georgi Parvanov, former MPs, former constitutional judges, supreme magistrates, investigators, members of parliament, prominent and well-known former and current Bulgarian journalists

The files of the former Committee for State Security are a thorny issue in Bulgaria, especially when it comes to the past of high-ranking officials.

Bulgaria's communist-era security service is believed to have remained potent after the fall of communism with the ex-operatives closely linked to the political and business establishment.

 

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