From the Facebook profile of Polina Paunova
How Kiril Petkov translates what Borisov and Peevski said and… a little chronology of the facts:
On September 20, Atanas Atanasov (DSB) resigned from the commission for control over the services in the parliament. His motive is that Borisov blames the reform on the “Security” sector. The reform is one of the six grounds for the existence of the “Denkov-Gabriel” cabinet. Important clarification: Atanas Atanasov has been pushing for this reform for a long time. And in this assembly, configuration or whatever we call him there – he is responsible for this reform.
On September 20, Delyan Peevski gave a signal that the DPS would not support the reform they thought they would stand behind (this was declared earlier).
On September 20, Hristo Ivanov told bTV that it was Atanasov who discussed the reform with Borisov. Then suddenly Borisov stepped aside.
September 21: Borissov and Peevski scrap post-war reform in Ukraine. Otherwise, both parties – both GERB and DPS are also in favor of “large-scale reform of the services”.
On September 23, Kiril Petkov gave an interview on Nova TV. People are resting, not looking at it. And in the evening they read what he said.
Svobodna Europe reports: “Kiril Petkov agreed with Borisov and Peevski that it is not a good time to reform the services.” Dnevnik reports: “Kiril Petkov agrees with GERB and DPS on the reform of services proposed by Atanasov”.
I post the title of Free Europe. After a while, a factor from PP wrote to me to “read the article again now”. I open, the title is different: “Kiril Petkov calls for huge reforms of the services”. DANCE went in self-defense”.
Now, let’s see what Kiril Petkov says. I play Nova. I hear that he is translating on air what Borisov and Peevski said and what they didn’t say.
23.09.23, Nova TV:
“Kiril Petkov: General Atanasov put forward a proposal for a huge reform. At that time, GERB rejected this type of reform. But now we have to go back and say: look, if it’s not this type of reform, but reform is needed, and let’s find a consensus on how to make this reform happen. And my hope is that by the same thorny and difficult path we will reach a result that the original positions are not the same.
Host: …Mr. Peevski and Mr. Borisov said “a reform of the services should take place after the end of the war”. The war may be over in years. Does this mean that the service reform will also come in years?
Kiril Petkov: No. What they said was that the amalgamation of the two services should take place after, at the end of the war. Because right now military intelligence is needed in this form for… during the war and it’s dangerous to deploy there. But this does not mean that we cannot reform the structures of the services themselves. Just to give you an example – at the moment there are 2200, something like that, number of employees in DANS. They are distributed in a strange way. Archie.. old way I guess. And there are no clear methods for evaluating individual employees – how effective they are and how effective they are not. There is quite a subjective factor in their assessment. What we want – it’s not about one or the other – we want these services to have accountability, to have clearly set goals, for these goals to be evaluated, and for these goals to be evaluated, to reach the individual employees in these services and the people who were the best to be promoted, not those who were most politically palatable or interacted with non-state bodies.
Host: I.e. To have a reform, but not the reform of gen. Atanasov?
Kiril Petkov: I think that General Atanasov continues to have very clear goals and ideas for reforms. Yes, it may not be an exact merger, but certainly a huge overhaul in the services themselves needs to happen.”
***
The reform planned in the security sector is not a secret, we described it in “Capital” – the text is from Friday, anyone can find it. Including the deadlines set by Atanas Atanasov, in which to carry out, with the modernization of the Security Council, etc. And with the arguments for all this. But this reform is meant to begin with the merging of broadly speaking civilian and military intelligence. The goal is to purge this menagerie. That is why the rethinking of the “Security” sector was in the priorities of PP-DB, and hence also of the government.
Well, on the facts:
Atanas Atanasov resigned to highlight the sabotage of one of the cabinet’s six priorities.
Borisov and Peevski said that they too are for reform, but another time. “Dad will buy me a bike, but another time”.
Obviously, what Peevski and Borisov say will happen.
