Diplomatic Lustration Trap for Bulgaria’s New President - Parvanov

Outgoing President Parvanov (left) has warned his successor Rosen Plevneliev (right) to handle carefully the recall of Bulgarian Ambassadors with proven links to the communist regime's secret services. Photo by BGNES

Outgoing Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov has warned about the clash between the demands of the goverment and the decision of the Constitutional Court (KS) regarding diplomats affiliated with the communist-era secret service (DS).

The current head of state insisted that the situation posed a trap for President-Elect Rosen Plevneliev.

"The decision of KS on Ambassadors with ties to the former DS makes it imperative to change the motives for the recall of the diplomats," Parvanov commented on Monday after a meeting with his successor.

The outgoing head of state argued that it ought to be common knowledge that KS decisions are to be executed and not commented upon.

"For days on end, I have been repeating a phrase I have stored in memory - "Keep the President, keep the presidential institution because we shall need it". The government in which he participated not long ago is the first that ought to take care of this," Parvanov stated.

"The proposal made by the Council of Ministers contradicts the decision of the Constitutional Court. President-Elect Plevneliev cannot be expected to issue a decree on the basis of these motives. This is a trap for him. My advice would be to change the motives behind the recall of the diplomatic personnel in order to avoid such a situation," he explained.

"My political stance on the issue is clear and I stated it in the course of the election campaign. It has not changed. I am in favor of solving this problem and supporting the efforts of the government. At the same time, I am firmly in favor of abiding by KS decisions, meaning that I am confident that that a good solution will be found on the basis of the the court ruling and the government's efforts in the next two months," Plevneliev said.

On November 23, KS revoked the amendments to the Diplomatic Service Act banning former agents of the former State Security (DS) from taking up key posts at Bulgaria's diplomatic missions abroad.

The case was brought before KS by 56 MPs from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS)..

The controversial set of legal amendments was adopted by the Parliament in mid-July, paving the way for kicking out of office the country's 35 ambassadors proven to have cooperated with the communist regime's secret service – State Security, DS.

The changes initiated by Foreign Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, were designed to rectify the huge scandal that shook the Bulgarian government in the fall of 2010 with regards to the diplomats' lustration (i.e. limiting the participation of former communists, and especially informants of the communist secret police in the civil service).

The Foreign Minister was outraged when at the end of 2010 the so-called Files Commission, the special panel examining the Communist era documentation, revealed that almost half of Bulgaria's ambassadors abroad, in a number of key countries – from the UK to Russia and China, had been collaborators of the former State Security Service.

At the end of July, Parvanov imposed a veto on legal amendments banning former State Security agents from occupying key diplomatic posts.

On September 01, Bulgaria's Parliament overturned the presidential veto, with a total of 129 "against" votes of MPs from the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party, the far-right, nationalist Ataka and the right-wing Blue Coalition.

The opposition, the left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, supported the presidential veto.

On November 03, President-Elect Rosen Plevneliev announced that the first thing he would do after assuming office in January 2012 would be to recall all Bulgarian Ambassadors with State Security records.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!