site.btaPresident Radev: No One Can Discredit Government Except for Government Itself

June 18 (BTA) - Commenting on recent discrediting disclosures about Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, which involved leaks of photos and an audio recording, President Rumen Radev said on Thursday: "No one can discredit the government except for the government itself." Radev said that Borissov is the biggest threat to the government.

"The most important thing now is to restore public confidence, and truth is the only way to do that," the President went on to say. The prosecution service should investigate the photos as well as the audio recording, he urged. (The Sofia City Prosecution Office has already started an investigation into the recording.)

"The photo which shows the Prime Minister asleep is most disturbing, because it implies a risk to his life. Such an invasion of privacy is unacceptable," Radev commented.

He sees a "preposterous plot" to divert public attention from the main question: the question about the authenticity of the recording and the photos.

Asked to comment on Borissov's allegation that Radev has ordered the use of a drone to carry out surveillance of the Prime Minister, the President said: "My drone is so advanced that it can fly into bedrooms, make recordings, open drawers and cram stacks of euros into them. Of course not." One of the leaked photos shows stacks of 500-euro banknotes in an open nightstand drawer.

The President remarked: "I cannot interpret everything that Prime Minister Borissov says. My imagination has its limits, after all."

The President said he trusts the National Service for Protection (NSP). "As soon as the photos were shown to me, I contacted the NSP team and asked them to conduct a check." RY/VE

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