2024-02-22 16:01:44
The then head of the Metropolitan Inspectorate requested a one-day leave for the day of the protest
The Mayor of Sofia, Vasil Terziev, will request written opinions from the SDVR, DANS and other bodies on whether there is a danger of escalation of tension before any protest. The reason for this is a fight between citizens and the police during the protest against the leadership of the BFS in November.
“According to this experience, we have introduced a new requirement. For every event, a written opinion must be requested from SDVR, DANS and other institutions, so that no one has to work with guesswork and we hear the next day on television how they knew, however, in order to avoid nervousness and a problem with public opinion, they had not said, which I do not find normal,” Terziev said during his hearing in the parliament. Today he appeared before the temporary commission in the National Assembly to investigate the organization of the event and police aggression.
“On my own initiative, the day before the protest, I contacted Mr. Nikolov from the SDVR in order to clarify what exactly they plan to do, what is the deployment of forces, what specific actions they will take so that the gathering does not escalate in any way. In this conversation at no point was any information even verbally shared that major provocations were expected, that they had concerns that things would escalate, rather it was left to my imagination that 1,600 in uniform and a water cannon perhaps suggested that there would be something “, Terziev said. That is why he did not stop the protest – because he had no data that this was necessary.
When he arrived at the place together with the head of the SDVR Lyubomir Nikolov and Krasimir Dimitrov – director of “Emergency Assistance and Prevention” at the municipality, the dispersal of groups had already begun. He asked them to protest, but to be peaceful and not to destroy municipal property.
“I think that while I was there, this happened. There were no provocations, slightly nervous conversations, but still calm, no violence from the law enforcement agencies, nor from the protesters,” the mayor recalled. Then he returned to the municipality, and the next day he realized that then the tension had escalated.
“One interesting fact is the desire of the former head of the Inspectorate, Mr. Ivaylo Ivanov, to take leave for this very day. I don’t know if this was shared with you. Only for one day, exactly on the day of the protest, which I found relatively irresponsible when there was any concern that it would have to be cleaned up afterwards and the place where the protests took place. Fortunately, Mr. Ivanov was replaced, and with the new Director of the Metropolitan Inspectorate and Mr. Krasimir Dimitrov we managed to bring everything into shape,” explained the mayor.
The day after the protest – November 17, it became clear that Ivanov was leaving his post by mutual consent. He was on it since October 2021. He was previously director of the SDVR, but was dismissed in connection with police violence under the columns of the Council of Ministers during the anti-government protests in the summer of 2020.
After midnight, the area around the National Stadium, where the protest took place, had already been cleaned, and by noon the next day, the broken pegs, dividing barriers and lit buckets had been replaced.