The question about temporarily removing Interior Minister Roumen Petkov from his post was not discussed at a Bulgaria Socialist Party (BSP) executive bureau session, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told reporters on April 1 2008. Stanishev is leader of the BSP and Petkov is a member of the executive bureau.
The executive bureau, however, recommended that Petkov temporary dismiss his number two in the Interior Ministry, chief secretary Valentin Petrov, for the duration of the Prosecutor-Generals Offices investigation into the ministrys work.
Stanishev said that Petkov had assured him that he was assuming the entire political responsibility for what was happening in the Interior Ministry.
I do not think that Petkov would have the opportunity to hinder the Prosecutor-Generals Offices investigation within the ministry, Stanishev said.
Furthermore, Stanishev said that Petkov would present a report on the ministrys overall work. The report will have to be ready within 10 days and will be sent to the BSP and the ruling coalition council.
People should know that the investigation will continue to the very end and that no one will escape without carrying his own political responsibility, Stanishev said. It is obvious that there should be serious changes within the work of the ministry in order to meet peoples expectations.
This was Stanishevs first reaction to the uproar surrounding Petkov after both met on March 31.
Petkov is currently under immense public pressure to resign after he himself admitted to having had contact with people under investigation.
It all started after the media anonymously received a document included in a classified investigation performed against Ivan Ivanov, deputy head of the ministry's Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime.
The phone call records of Ivanov proved that he was giving classified information to people under investigation. Ivanov is currently under arrest.
