Bulgaria Secret Service Agent-Turned-Minister Stays Unrepentant

Bozhidar Dimitrov, the Director of the National History Museum and former collaborator of the secret services, who triggered a political storm after being proposed for minister in the new government, said he has no regrets.

"Why the hell should I give up the ministerial post? All the fuss about the secret files is being orchestrated by no other than people close to the former secret services," an emotional Dimitrov said in an interview for local Trud daily when asked about the strong public opposition to his nomination.

Earlier in the week the right-wingers from the Union of Democratic Forces and Democrats for Strong Bulgaria vehemently opposed his nomination for minister in charge of the Bulgarians abroad because of his collaboration for the secret services.

Dimitrov turned into the apple of discord and quickly soured the relations between the two parties and the formation of Boyko Borisov, who did not hesitate to defend what he called his "friend."

"I have done many things about many people and they have not always paid me back... This is the first time that I have seen anyone defend me so powerfully as Boyko Borisov. If I was not a man, I would have cried," Dimitrov recalled.

Bozhidar Dimitrov, who was tipped to head the parliamentary culture commission, entered the cabinet of GERB leader Boyko Borisov shortly after it was decided that MPs who were collaborators of the so called State Security, the intelligence and secret police during the communist regime, will be banned from leading parliamentary commission.

According to Dimitrov, however, there are no double standards.

"These restrictions concern only the regulation of the parliament," he said in the interview.

Among the first initiatives that he is going to undertake once he comes into office, Bozhidar Dimitov pointed out sorting out the piles of applications for Bulgarian citizenship and increasing the number of scholarships for Bulgarians in Macedonia.

"Only I can do this job properly," Dimitrov declared confidently.

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