2024-08-21 23:06:30
- And others invited him into politics. He thanked Peevski for defending the Ministry of Interior, he will decide
- Glavchev will say about his stay when (and if) he receives another mandate as interim prime minister
A salute to the police officers – this is what Kalin Stoyanov’s raised fist symbolized during the protest in his defense. This is how he usually greeted law enforcement officers, the interior minister defended himself on Wednesday. And he does not intend to resign.
“Minister of the Interior with his fist in front of the presidency. It is not admissible!” Boyko Borisov said on Tuesday and urged the president and Dimitar Glavchev as acting prime minister to find a formula to release the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The state cannot be held hostage by one interior minister, whoever he is, continued the GERB leader and recalled how he himself changed interior ministers when he was prime minister. Borisov saw in Stoyanov’s gesture the raised fist of Rumen Radev 4 years ago, which, in his words, “has now returned to him”.
This gesture remained emblematic for Radev after he raised his fist in 2020 during the protests against Borisov’s third cabinet and against then-chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev. On Monday, Kalin Stoyanov raised his fist in the same place – in front of the presidency, where the police gathered in his defense. The uniformed protest was also called immediately after the president’s refusal to sign the decree for Gorica Kozhareva’s cabinet precisely because Stoyanov remained as minister. The PP-DB have been demanding his resignation for a long time, his name was among the reasons why they and GERB quarreled over the composition of the “Gabriel” government after the rotation and the collapse of the assembly.
“I didn’t mean at all what some people thought. I, as the head of a law enforcement agency, am the last person who can even think of such behavior – to go against any institution in such a way. Even more against the presidential one, which I deeply respect”, explained Stoyanov before the meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday.
“This behavior of mine should in no way be associated with the behavior of President Radev 3-4 years ago. Colleagues from the Ministry of Internal Affairs system know me very well. And they know very well that on the road where I have met them, and patrols, and in the structures where I have gone, I many times greet them in exactly this way”, he insisted. He denied that he had agreed with Gorica Kozhareva to go to the police protest together.
On Tuesday, DPS chairman Delyan Peevski announced that he would invite the minister to be the leader of his party’s list if he is removed. “I thank Mr. Peevski for his support to the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a whole. Yes, yesterday he publicly expressed such readiness – for me to be invited to his future project. This is the place to say that I have other invitations. Where and how I will position myself is my personal decision”, he commented.
And to the questions of whether he will leave the post and whether he expects to be replaced, he answered as follows: “I am part of the official cabinet and at this stage I believe that I should remain in this post, as we see that there are attempts to master the system “.
Stoyanov’s stay is one of Radev’s red lines. However, the topic was not discussed between the head of state and Dimitar Glavchev, claims the current acting prime minister. On Wednesday, he appeared with him at the new “casting”, but according to him, they only discussed “general matters” and not “details”.
“We have not commented on such a topic,” assured Glavchev. And when asked if he would still leave him in his possible second cabinet, he replied: “I have not been given a mandate.”