Bulgaria's Interior Minister Unperturbed by 'Tapegate', Police Violations

Tsvetanov is firm he would not step down as Interior MInister because of Tapegate. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has made it clear he will not resign even if there are proven leaks of classified information that led to the so called "Tapegate" in January.

Speaking in Parliament Friday, Tsvetanov said he will bear political responsibility for any violations but that the specific responsibility would belong to individual officers. His answers to MPs and journalists left the impression that he deemed the posts of Interior Minister and head of the State National Security Agency DANS to be political and to have a different kind of responsibility from that of the law enforcement officers with "technical" responsibility.

The Interior Minister spoke after Thursday night a subcommittee of the Bulgarian Parliament investigating "Tapegate", i.e. the recent leaks of tapped discrediting telephone conversations between senior government figures – found numerous violations in the use of wiretapping.

"The case with the tapping of the telephones of Bulgarian Customs Agency head Vanyo Tanov demonstrates the overall flaws of the mechanism for the use of tapping devices in Bulgaria. The responsibility about its weaknesses falls on the law enforcement institutions – the ones in the direct charge of the public safety and security," the Bulgarian MPs said.

During his answers to MP questions on Friday, however, Tsvetanov was mostly beating about the bush with respect to the conclusions of the "wiretapping" subcommittee, which is dominated by MPs from his own party GERB.

"I think that based on these conclusions there can be legislative initiatives, and that many structures can be improved," the Interior chief said adding that once the source of the leaked tapes is discovered, there will be proper punitive measures. He believes that the use of wiretapping by the Bulgarian law enforcement institutions is fully in line with the existing legislation.

Tsvetanov has also refuted the rumors that there is a rift in the ruling party GERB fueled by the fact that on a recent motion by the right Blue Coalition to create a committee to investigate a case of tapping the phones of doctors in the town of Gorna Oryahovitsa 16 GERB MPs abstained.

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