site.btaOne Partner in Power-Sharing Nationalist Coalition Undecided about Counter-Corruption Commission Chief Nomination

November 20 (BTA) - The National Front for the Salvation
of Bulgaria (NFSB, one of two partners in the power-sharing
nationalist coalition United Patriots), has not yet made a
decision whether to support or not the nomination of outgoing
Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov to head the
Counter-corruption and Unlawfully Acquired Assets Forfeiture
Commission.

"There is not a joint decision of the parliamentary group of the
 United Patriots in respect of Mr Tsatsarov's nomination to head
 the Counter-corruption Commission," NFSB leader Valeri Simeonov
 said.

Tsatsarov's nomination was announced on Tuesday at a briefing of
 GERB, representatives of the United Patriots, and Ataka.

Simeonov said that the question of Tsatsarov's nomination had
not been discussed in the group and no joint decision had been
made. In his words, a mandatory decision means a decision made
by two thirds of the parliamentary group.

On Thursday Tsatsarov is invited to a meeting with the NFSB MPs.
 

The office of the chairman of the Counter-corruption Commission
has been vacant since July 2019 when a property scandal forced
the then chair, Plamen Georgiev, to resign. After he left the
Commission, he became a rank-and-file prosecutor but shortly
after that the government appointed him Bulgarian Consul in
Valencia and he left for Spain.

It has also transpired that the MPs of Volya have nominated
fellow MP Simeon Naydenov for the Counter-corruption Commission
chairmanship.

"An Asset for Any Country"

Hamid Hamid MP of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF)
said that his parliamentary group has not discussed the two
nominations for Counter-corruption Commission chair. "After they
 submit their concepts, we will meet to analyze them in great
depth," Hamid said.

He left no secret about how his party views Tsatsarov's
nomination. "I must say that, in the opinion of my colleagues
and myself, there is no doubt about the Prosecutor General's
worth as a person, his professionalism and the qualities which
he possesses. I believe it would be an asset for any country to
use such potential."

According to Hamid, the Counter-corruption Commission is the
right place for this potential to develop. LN/ZH/VE


/СН/