Bulgaria Socialist Leader Gives up MP Wannabe Immunity Voluntarily

Socialist leader Sergey Stanishev, who served as prime minister in the three-way coalition, called on prosecutors to immediately launch a probe into the allegations against him. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Bulgaria’s Socialist leader Sergey Stanishev announced he is ready to sign a declaration saying he would give up voluntarily his immunity as candidate for member of parliament.

The statement came in the wake of allegations by his arch rivals from GERB that he was elected leader of the Party of European Socialists, PES, after paying a bribe of BGN 116 M.

“I am giving up my immunity. Tsvetanov should do the same,” Stаnishev told the morning broadcast of TV 7, referring to the former interior minister from Borisov government, which resigned under public pressure in February.

The Socialist leader, who served as prime minister in the three-way coalition, called on prosecutors to immediately launch a probe into the allegations against him.

Bulgaria’s former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov declared last week that he is ready to give up his immunity, but only after the upcoming general elections on May 12.

“Once the election is over, and once the evidence collected is presented, I will be able to
Tsvetanov’s statement follows the announcement made on Tuesday by the Sofia prosecuting authority that there was sufficient evidence indicating that Tsvetanov had committed a crime.

The Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office made clear that Tsvetanov, in his capacity as public official, had consciously allowed his subordinates to engage in illegal wiretapping. Charges cannot be pressed against Tsvetanov, since he is now running for Parliament, and therefore has immunity.

Tsvetanov, who is on a cross-country tour as head of the election headquarters of center-right party GERB, faces a penalty of up to eight years of imprisonment if the prosecuting authority presses charges and succeeds to prove them in court.

At the end of last month, a secretly recorded conversation between former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, former Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, and already-former Sofia City Prosecutor, Nikolay Kokinov, leaked in Bulgarian media, stirring a massive scandal.

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