PM Pledges to Seek Public Support for New Security Chief

Bulgaria’s prime minister Plamen Oresharski said he will seek to nominate a new head of the national security agency who is supported by the public, after the appointment of controversial MP Delyan Peevski to the post on Friday triggered mass street protests.

“[…] in the next few days I will hold a series of meetings and consultations so as to find public support for the new figure that I will nominate,” Oresharski said in a statement circulated by the government’s press office on Sunday.

On Friday Parliament appointed without debate as national security chief Peevski, an MP of the ethnic Turks’ Movement for Rights and Freedoms, a party whose support is vital for Oresharski's Socialist cabinet.Peevski, a media mogul with power business interests in all spheres of the economy, has no experience in the security field.

His appointment caused public outrage with thousands gathering in front of the Council of Ministers to demand early elections. President Rosen Plevneliev said his “credit of confidence in the new government was exhausted” and urged parliament to immediately revise its decision as, in his words, itwould have long-term negative consequences for the country.  

On Saturday Peevski said he was ready to withdraw. For his part, the prime minister said he would come up with a new nomination once the MPs had reversed their decision.