Bulgaria Socialists Attack Restrictions for Secret Service Agents

Before his re-election, Socialist president Georgi Parvanov was among those who acknowledged collaboration with the communist secret service. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Socialist Party has started a sign-up to challenge a parliamentary regulation, which says MPs who collaborated with the communist secret service are not allowed to assume key posts in the national assembly.

The forty Socialist members of parliament, who are successors of the former communists, are set to approach the Constitutional Court if they manage to collect eight more signatures, as required by law.

The Socialists will most probably ask for support their former partners from the previous coalition, the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

The proposal was tabled by the right-wing Blue coalition and was adopted with the votes of the majority GERB party and its partners (146 votes to 32). Under the regulation parliamentarians with state security records are not able to head parliamentary commissions or join international delegations.

The files of the notorious secret service were made public shortly before Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007.

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.

Before his re-election, Socialist president Georgi Parvanov was among those who acknowledged collaboration with the communist secret service.

 

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