site.btaBulgarian Head of State: Reforming Security Services Requires Knowledge of Laws

Approached by reporters here on Monday, President Rumen Radev said that whoever has the ambition to reform the security services must know their laws, structure, functions and how they interact with foreign partners. "If you don't know these things, you should better not get involved in reforming the services", he added. He was commenting on the proposal that the heads of the security services be appointed by the National Assembly on a proposal by the Prime Minister.

Radev noted that reform does not mean replacing the leadership with so called "our guys" and called for reform ideas to be put on the table.

The Head of State also commented that he and Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov have discussed several important challenges facing the country. "I hope the government will act as wisely as possible and govern in the interest of Bulgaria and its citizens", Radev said.

He pointed out that in 2022, the current leadership of Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security received from the US the George Tenet award, which is given once a year to only one country for outstanding contributions to US national security.

"Now the conclusion is that those who want to make reforms, that is, to decapitate the services, want to remove this leadership. According to them, this means reform. Thus, they nullify the assessment from our partners given from the highest level", Radev stressed.