The murky past of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov is preventing him from acting to crack down on large-scale criminal structures, according to German journalist Jurgen Roth.

At the same time, Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov appears to not be burdened by his past, and will be enjoying EU support, Roth told the Bulgarian office of the Deutsche Welle.

On Monday, Roth, who is on trial for slander in Bulgaria for the publishing of his book about organized crime, "The New Bulgarian Demons," spoke at a special conference in Brussels, entitled "Reform Policies in Bulgaria – One Year after the Change of the Government", organized by the Hans Seidel Foundation, which was also attended by Bulgaria's Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov Tsvetanov.

The German journalist, who had been saying for a long time he would not show up in Bulgaria because of the findings of his investigations that generated threats to his life, announced that he will be coming to Sofia in the coming weeks, and that Interior Minister Tsvetanov has promised full-fledged guarantee of his security.

"What I emphasized are Bulgaria's continuing problems and mistakes, and the things that should be done to develop a democratic civil society. Mr. Tsvetanov painted a very positive picture of the nation, especially with respect to fighting organized crime and corruption... It is true that one year is not enough to solve all problems after nothing has been done in the past 20 years. My impression is that Tsvetan Tsvetanov has political will to change the situation. Whether Boyko Borisov also has the political will is a whole other question," Roth stated.

While in his conference statement the German investigative journalist declared that the Bulgarian government is failing to do anything against white-collar crime, and pointed to the Varna-based economic group TIM, in his Wednesday's interview he refused to comment further.

"It cannot be said that Borisov's policies have any consistence – he is courting the USA, Russia, while doing nothing against members of organized crime that occupy high-level posts in the government and the economy. I think this is due to Borisov's controversial past. But getting back to Monday's discussion, everybody thought that Mr. Tsvetanov follows a clear political line, and makes an impression of an extremely serious and unburdened politicians. That is why he will get European support for Bulgaria's accession to the Schengen Agreement. There were no such positive attitudes towards Boyko Borisov on part of the EU representatives," believes Roth.

The Borisov-Tsvetanov tandem dominates Bulgarian politics and government at present, with Deputy PM and Interior Minister Tsvetanov being Borisov's most trusted man for years. In the spring Tsvetanov's public rating surpassed Borisov's for the first time, fueling rumors that he might seek indepedent political career in the future. Yet, such a scenario appears unlikely as Tsvetanov has indicated his awareness he has achieved his political career to Borisov.

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