Less than a day after neighbouring Romania saw its data retention law referred to the recycling bin as unconstitutional, Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov made a plea for a scenario under which his ministry would extend its current access to electronic communication data even further.

Tsvetanov’s plea was thinly wrapped as a proposal to improve the efficiency of Bulgarian police and judiciary.

Tsvetanov started by admitting, but only for a brief moment, that prosecution of a specific type of fraud – telephone fraud – by Bulgarian police had been inefficient. He was quick to place the blame for this failure firmly outside the walls of his own ministry and on the doorsteps of existing laws and the judiciary.

As justification for the level of control and access Tsvetanov argued for, telephone fraud is as irrelevant and only slightly less pathetic than the example of child pornography used by his predecessor Mihail Mikov. 

Tsvetanov’s ministry already has permanent access to electronic communication data through what is referred to euphemistically as "a terminal", without the knowledge of communication service providers. An ideal setup for extended fishing expeditions. Under Tsvetanov’s proposal, instead of having to go through service providers for a copy of the communication data to be used in court, his own ministry would provide this data. If implemented, it will certainly give the ministry even more room for expeditions.

In the same week, Tsvetanov’s lack of understanding of the rule of law was rivalled by Plovdiv mayor and Internal Macedonia Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO) leadership hopeful Slavcho Atanassov, who showed that freedom of expression exists only in theory, at least in Plovdiv.

Hugely overstepping his authority, Atanassov ordered Plovdiv police to bar artist and EU citizen David Cerny from entering any public building in the city just because he, the mayor, did not like what Cerny had said.

In his intolerance of a different opinion, Atanassov was in the company of Boyan Rasate, leader of the right-wing Bulgarian National Union, not an enviable position for someone who wants to be perceived as a democratic politician.

Instead of defending freedom of expression, some local media criticised curator Emil Mirazchiev for causing the row by inviting Cerny.

If Bulgarian media and cultural community are unable to defend freedom of expression, then why would we expect the Rasates, Atanassovs and Tsvetanovs of this world not to trample basic democratic principles?