Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov dismissed Deputy Minister of the Interior Stoyan Temelakiev – Around the world and in our country

Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov made a statement in the Council of Ministers.

“Instead of a football celebration, yesterday we watched ugly scenes of violence. The main reason is the long-term management of the current leadership of the BFS, which led to the decline of Bulgarian football without any visible prospect for development. The chaotic actions of this management regarding the organization of yesterday’s match further increased the tension. To this we must also add errors in the organization of the leaderships of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defense, which brought together the opposing agitations of the football teams in one place. I want to thank all the peacefully protesting soccer fans, as well as all the policemen who dutifully fulfilled their duty without using violence in an extremely difficult environment full of provocations,” said the Prime Minister.

“I have taken the following actions – I have sent a letter to UEFA headquarters and the UEFA control ethics and disciplinary committee to see their opinion. I will also seek FIFA’s position. I fired the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Stoyan Temelakiev, who is directly responsible for operational activities in the Ministry of the Interior. I am entrusting the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Zhivko Kotsev, with the fastest and most objective investigation into the observed cases of violence by individual police officers. Their names must become clear and they must receive the highest disciplinary punishments for the cases of police violence, including dismissals from the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” said the Prime Minister.

Denkov also commented on the demands for the resignation of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Kalin Stoyanov.

“I will discuss this issue first with Deputy Prime Minister Maria Gabriel. We will also discuss the next steps on this topic with her,” he added.

The Prime Minister commented on where the Minister of the Interior was during the protests last night.

“I received information, that he was at some movie screening, which is quite disturbing. As you know, at that time we had a meeting of the Council of Ministers, at which the minister was replaced by the deputy. Minister Temelakiev, so at one point I had to tell Deputy. the minister – but please go and do your job. So, there was obviously a problem in coordination,” Denkov stressed.

He indicated that he saw an inadequate assessment of the situation by Kalin Stoyanov.

“I spoke to him several times yesterday and he assured me that he does not expect any particular problems, provocations. This morning his comment was, that nothing much happened“.

“I don’t have any criticism of the sports minister. Regarding the organization of these matches, he has no direct responsibilities. They are related to the correspondence between the BFS and UEFA, about where and how the match will be organized, after which mainly the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior must they organize the security, including the planning of the event. I saw two main problems – the gathering of the campaigners and violence by individual policemen. We saw video recordings of things that should not be happening,” the prime minister is categorical.

With regard to the vote of no confidence, Denkov again recalled his position that the immediate cancellation of the derogation will lead to an upheaval in the fuel market in our country.

“I will not make a single decision that is not reasonable for the state. The proposal for 3 days to withdraw the derogation is absolutely unreasonable with very high risks shown by various institutions. This request is not in accordance with any political logic, except one – to set political traps The decisions will always be those that I consider reasonable for the state, people, business. I will not succumb to arm wringing. As long as I can make the right decisions, I will. GERB and DPS, who are together, have every right to overthrow the government. Let them do itDenkov pointed out.

“First, I want to emphasize again that I should not place the blame on everyone. Again, I thank all the Zalyankovites who protested peacefully and those policemen who did their job. It should not be said – everyone is guilty. Deputy in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Temelakiev is in charge of this organization. Whoever is in charge, he must take responsibility. In the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Temelakiev is in charge and he took responsibility. In SDVR, an analysis must be made and responsibility must be taken. It is not the fault of the SDVR as a whole, it could have been much worse last night, but an analysis must be done,” summed up the Prime Minister.

When asked whether Kalin Stoyanov was pressured to work for PP-DB during the elections, Denkov answered:

“Let’s separate the issues. First, if I have pressured Kalin Stoyanov in something, it is to fulfill his obligations regarding the organization of the vote. Regarding all parties, without exception. Yes, I have had conversations several times – you and the team do not you have to let there be a violation of the election law as far as it depends on you. That’s what we’ve had. That’s his job, I never pressed him about specific parties“, added the Prime Minister.

Regarding the machine vote scandal, Denkov said:

“The Minister of e-Government, Alexander Iolovski, is in a procedure in which he is being dealt with by investigative bodies, the prosecutor’s office. I can no longer demand such information. I have to see if he is doing his job as a minister. The decision for me is to do his job as well as possible work as a minister”.

Denkov did not want to comment on whether Kalin Stoyanov’s appointment as interior minister was at the request of GERB.

“I have always said and I will say it again, yes, there are such ministers, but I want to work with everyone as a team. Most of them succeed in almost all cases. Temelakiev was personally chosen by the minister, he insisted on working with him. I cannot specify a political affiliation. I don’t want to say where the ministers came from. When the government falls, I will tell you where they came from.”

“We have not discussed such a strategy, I still have enough political experience to know how a resignation of a minister takes an enormous amount of time and energy and political momentum. We will proceed to change ministers when it becomes clear that it is no longer possible to fulfill his duties as a minister.”

On the subject of the proposal for the resignation of DANS Chairman Plamen Tonchev, the Prime Minister said:

“I have always acted institutionally. I have no problem working with anyone. The issue is that the quality of the work will not be as expected. I don’t trust Tonchev enough, after he didn’t do what I expected him to do. I hope he will also be responsible to work with all the institutions. But to claim that there is no problem is frivolous to say the least. Regarding the president’s reasons, we have uploaded the reasons and everyone can compare them and see what is legal and what is not. The previous motives for Tonchev’s predecessor are much more baseless than mine, which are quite specific.”

Denkov also commented on whether the newly elected mayor of Sofia, Vasil Terziev, nominated by PP-DB, should have banned the protest last night.

“Regarding the role of the newly elected mayor, he has no right to ban this protest. Even if he tried to ban it, it would have an even worse result because it would increase the tension even more. The fans have the right to be in the stadium as well , and to protests, that is their right. And things will not be solved with bans alone. The problems come from the bad management of football for years, our teams are going down, secondly, from the bad organization of the match, thirdly, from the wrong gathering of the campaigners in one place, all these are concrete actions for which there are people who are responsible. What should he do – to ban a protest in which 10,000 people are ready to enter? How do you imagine this?” Denkov asked rhetorically.

Check out Alexander Markov’s direct involvement

Hear the latest news wherever you are!
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram
Follow the BNT channel on YouTube
You can now also watch us on TikTok