Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski. Photo by BGNES
In an attempt to appease the ongoing massive protests in Bulgaria, Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski apologized Wednesday for last week’s appointment of controversial media mogul Delyan Peevski as head of the State Agency for National Security.
However, Oresharski once again refused to resign.
“I made a political mistake, for which I apologize not only to you, but to the thousands of people who took to the streets to protest,” the PM told Parliament.
“They called for my resignation and I heard that clearly,” he assured.
But he ruled out stepping down, as he said it would be “the easiest decision” and would lead to a “bigger political crisis.”
Bulgaria’s Parliament expectedly retracted the appointment of Peevski as head of DANS on Wednesday.
The election of Peevski, a 32-year-old media mogul and MP from DPS, stirred a wave of massive protests across the country, with tens of thousands of Bulgarians taking to the streets for five days now.
New massive anti-government protests are expected to take place in Sofia and other major cities on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, it emerged that Peevski had been granted access to top secret files three days before he was elected as head of DANS. It is unclear whether DANS had the legal grounds to grant him the access, according to local media.
Peevski, who runs Bulgaria's biggest newspaper and television group, was investigated for alleged corruption while serving as a Deputy Minister in the Socialist-led three-way coalition government (2005-2009), but was reinstated after the charges were dropped.