Bulgaria's former ruling GERB party has issued a statement of support of vice-chair and election campaing leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov amidst news that the prosecution has found violations in police special surveillance during his term as Interior Minister.

"The prosecution report announced today has shown that as a minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has not ordered any illegal tapping," says the GERB statement.

"We sharply protests any attempts at changing society's true agenda. And we firmly stand behind former minister Tsvetanov's efforts in the struggle against organized crime," adds the party.

In the statement GERB urges that any loopholes in police internal rules and procedures for wiretapping be mended.

The party further says that it was during its term in power after 2009 that special surveillance in Bulgaria came under the control of Parliament.

It further lashes out against oponents, in particular Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergey Stanishev, who filed the signal against Tsvetanov, as attempting to groundlessly discredit its functionnaries ahead of May 12 early elections.

GERB's statement in particular includes references to previous tapping scandals that occured before 2009.

It describes the pre-election behaviour of opponents as overly negativistic and short of "ideas and policies."

Tsvetanov has made clear he has no intention to resign from his leadership positions in GERB, while rival leaderrs have asked him to do so after the report.

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