Former Bulgarian Min: We Were Afraid of GERB Strongman

Bulgaria's former Minister of Agriculture Miroslav Naydenov. Photo by BGNES

The ministers in Bulgaria's former cabinet were all afraid of the power of their colleague ex-Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, according to Miroslav Naydenov, who served as Agriculture Minister in the cabinet.

Naydenov is one of the handful of former ruling party GERB affiliates, who has already spoken up against GERB's inner workings, and in particular against Tsvetanov's methods.

The former Agriculture Minister was part of the so-called wiretapping scandal that shook Bulgaria just ahead of May 12 general elections, which included a leaked tapped conversation between him, former PM Boyko Borisov and former prosecutor Nikolay Kokinov.

It is probable that Bulgaria's prosecution will shortly press charges against Tsvetanov on rampant mismanaging or abuse of wiretapping during his term in office.

"We suspected that as ministers we were being snooped upon by Tsvetanov," said Naydenov in an interview for Nova TV Saturday.

"We were afraid - not that we will lose our minister's seats, but rather that Tsvetanov had the whole power in this machine that could simply crush you," added he.

The former Agriculture Minister expressed his hope that now that the former top cop is out of power, more people will come up and share their stories.

He claimed that the scandalous leaked conversation he took part with was not recored by him, but by someone who had broken into his cell phone.

Weeks ago, Naydenov had announced that he had made arrangements to protect his family, sending them abroad.

The former minister is facing charges for abuse of power an mismanagement of funds during his term in office.

Currently, Tsvetan Tsvetanov is MP and vice-chair of GERB, which has the largest political group in the current Bulgarian parliament, although not managing to form a viable cabinet.

Wednesday he officially relinquished his MP immunity, so that the prosecution can press charges against him.

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