Twelve Bulgarian MEP Candidates Were DS Agents

Socialist MEP Evgeni Kirilov was also in the list of former Bulgarian State Security (DS) collaborators. Photo by BGNES

Twelve people running at May 25 European elections were part of Bulgaria's Communist-era State Security (DS), the Files Committee has announced.

A total of 173 candidates have been investigated, according to the Committee's website. Other 145 have not been liable to inspection, as they were born after July 16 1973 and their affiliation cannot be explored under the current files legislation.

Former DS collaborators are most numerous among candidates of the Bulgarian Communist Party, but its chances for winning a seat are described as close to zero, according to polls.

The ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) has one candidate, Evgeni Kirilov, who is also a current MEP. Among other parties with outlook to win more support at the vote, ex-journalist Nikolay Barekov's Bulgaria without Censorship, President (2002-2011) Georgi Parvanov's ABV and far-right Ataka will also be seeking to send a former DS agent to the European Parliament. 

A nationalist party, the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria (NFSB), shows a strong presence, with three of its potential MEPs having served in the ranks of the DS.

Some names were already known to the Bulgarian public as DS cadres from previous releases of the Committee.

Bulgaria's Files Committee's list, as published on the website, includes:

Evgeni Zahariev Kirilov - BSP

Stanislav Todorov Stanilov - Ataka

Krasimir Donchev Karakachanov - Bulgaria Without Censorship, VMRO

Nikolay Georgiev Tomov - ABV

Anna Maria Lyudmilova Gyuzeleva - NFSB

Lyubomir Aleksandrov Zhelev - NFSB

Velizar Petkov Enchev - NFSB

Boyan Borisov Kirov - Political Party of Bulgarian Left

Vasil Petrov Kolarov - Bulgarian Communist Party

Nako Raynov Stefanov - Bulgarian Communist Party

Penyu Paychen Kostadinov - Bulgarian Communist Party

Timur Genov Glozhenski - Bulgarian Communist Party

The Files Committee discloses documents and declares affiliation of Bulgarian citizens to the State Security and the intelligence services of the Bulgarian National Army.

In Bulgaria, as in other former Soviet-bloc states, the state security apparatus and the presence of its members in government after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s has been an issue of heated discussions. Unlike in some other countries, however, Bulgarian authorities have not place a ban for ex-DS cadres to run for public offices.

The staunchest critics against a potential prohibition argue that many have been forced to step into relations with the DS, some of them even on threat to their or their families' lives, and for many collaboration was therefore not a result of free will.

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