Bulgaria's Parliament Speaker Condemns Blast as Unpleasant Act

The speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva. Photo by BGNES

The speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva, has condemned the blast of the office of controversial newspaper Galeria weekly as "extremely unpleasant act".

"The explosion is an extremely unpleasant act, which occurs precisely on the day when the EU Commissioner on Home Affairs arrives to Bulgaria," Tsacheva said Thursday in the city of Veliko Tarnovo, where she will participate in the launching of the second stage of the national census.

In her words, the results of the first ever online census have showed that Bulgarians are uniting around a national cause and demonstrate confidence, while the same cannot be stated for the Bulgarian political powers with regards to the country's image in Europe.

"There are specialized state bodies, which will investigate the case. When they present their results and analyses, then we will be able to comment more on the case," Tsacheva said.

The blast in the building, which hosts the office of Galeria weekly, occurred shortly after 5:30 am Thursday.

There are no injured people, but damages were reported. There were broken windows of the office and nearby buildings.

The explosion is believed to have aimed at intimidating the controversial newspaper.

In January, Galeria weekly and the marginal conservative party RZS ("Order, Law, Justice"), both of which are deemed to be connected with Alexei Petrov, a former undercover agent arrested in a special police operation in February 2010, dubbed "the Octopus" and "the Tractor".

The tapes, whose authenticity remains disputed despite the fact that several institutions and alleged independent experts have come up with different conclusions on whether they were manipulated, contain alleged information that the government of PM Boyko Borisov is favoring certain companies and individuals with respect to investigations and appointments in the Customs Agency. All tapes are of conversations of Customs Agency head Vanyo Tanov.

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