No less than 1100 policemen and other Interior Ministry personnel will be axed across Bulgaria, and the process will be done using a list of 14 different criteria – they will be prioritised according to task, demographics, physical condition and others, according to Interior Minister Mihail Mikov, as quoted by the Bulgarian news agency BTA.

But it is not all about staff cuts, with Mikov saying that some particular branches of the ministry will be augmented with more personnel and resources. The international operative police cooperation branch for instance, as well as criminal police will see their numbers bolstered. The latter, however, apart from being reinforced with personnel will also be subjected to "thorough internal restructuring".

According to Mihkov, "those measures immediately prior to government elections are rather unpopular but they are already long overdue as they are. Any further procrastination is unthinkable, the system is cumbersome and archaic and its capacity and efficiency is in dire need of improvement".

Mikov inspected on February 23 the progress on the construction of the new 40 million leva criminal police headquarters, which has to be completed by the end of the year. According to Mikov, the new building will be the most modern of its kind in Southeastern Europe, it will also host the counter-terrorism unit.

Regarding Plamen Koutsarov, who died whilst in police custody, the minister said: "The disciplinary sanctions have been prepared. I demand full motivation, as those sanctions will concern many people and they are quite serious".

"The punitive sanctions are a responsibility of the prosecution, whereas the Interior Ministry will sort out the administrative and disciplinary sanctions within the ranks," Mikov added. "The measures have to be firm and calculated, they have to be perceived as fair, as this is their intention."