BULGARIA’S PRESIDENT HELD A MEETING ON SECURITY AND FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS

Bulgaria’s Head of State, President Roumen Radev, held the latest of a series of meetings with the Chief Prosecutor and the heads of security services. The meeting was dedicated to the conduct of the early parliamentary elections and national security, President’s press office said on 20th of March.

The meeting went on for more than an hour. It was attended by the Head of Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security, Dimitar Georgiev, the Head of Intelligence, Dragomir Dimitrov, the Chief Prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov and the Interior Minister Plamen Uzunov. One of the topics was ensuring the fairness of the 26th of March elections. The topic of the country’s security was also on the agenda.

Later, the President’s press office said they did not know whether tension in relations between Bulgaria and Turkey was discussed. It all started following the appearance of the Turkish ambassador in an election campaign video of one of the political parties running in Bulgaria's early elections. After that, Turkey’s minister of social security made a public call on Bulgarian Turk expatriates in Turkey to vote for a certain party in exchange of simplified procedures for obtaining citizenship. The minister was summoned to the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the reported campaigning in favour of this party. This was followed by an official reaction by Bulgaria saying that Turkey’s interference in Bulgaria’s election process was unacceptable. Last week, three Turkish citizens were expelled from the country, one of them being the chief secretary of the Edirne governor's office.

The President’s office did not confirm whether this topic was discussed.