Rayna Madzhukova has been fired as the head of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad because of criticizing the government publicly, in her own words.

Speaking live on Pro.bg TV, Mandzhukova revealed Thursday she had exposed the flaws of the Bulgarian state institutions, which led to her dismissal at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting. According to a brief statement of Bulgaria’s Diaspora Minister Bozhidar Dimitrov, she has been fired for being “disloyal to the state.”

“If saying there is no coordination between the institutions is disloyalty to the state, then I am disloyal. But I don’t think this is the case,” Mandzhukova said.

“I said that the claims that the major obstacle in the work of the government administration is the lack of money. The major obstacle is actually the lack of coordination between the institutions, and this is not new, this has been the problem of all Bulgarian governments,” she revealed.

Mandzhukova explained she had made these statements during a visit of a state delegation to Prague, which ended on May 23. In her words, Parliament Chair Tsetska Tsacheva immediately threatened to take measures against her because this was the first time she heard a senior civil servant “speaking purposefully against the state.”

Mandzhukova, who herself is from the historic Bulgarian minority in Bessarabia (a region in Ukraine and Moldova), stated she had expected help from Diaspora Minister Bozhidar Dimitrov, who actually revealed to her the reasons for her dismissal.

“He told me it was my big mouth that got me fire. I had expected only to be scolded as was the case several times before,” the now former head of the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad said.

Mandzhukova also declared that she was leaving the Agency in a good condition but in her words the institution has no measures to implement because none of the recent Bulgarian governments had adopted any strategy for the Bulgarians living abroad.

“This has been no such policy since the Agency was created. I am leaving behind a team of young and ambitious people with monthly salaries of BGN 380,”she concluded.

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