The popularity of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov has dropped by 14 per cent after the leak of an electronically eavesdropped phone call in which he allegedly was heard to pledge his support for a brewery that lacked a valid licence, polling agency Gallup said on January 19 2011.

Borissov told the Cabinet on January 19 that he had made the call at the request of President Georgi Purvanov, and no wrongdoing was involved.

According to Gallup, which conducted the poll through phone calls to 1058 people, 75 per cent said they were "informed" about the matter, with a third believing that the recordings were genuine, a third thinking that they were fake, while the remainder were undecided. Meanwhile, 32 per cent said that Borissov assisted the brewery, while 34 per cent said he did not, and 34 per cent had not made up their minds.

About 55 per cent thought that there was a crisis in the Government, while 29 per cent said that the issue was unimportant.

More than 40 per cent of those polled believed that Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov was "guilty" of eavesdropping on companies and individuals. A third believed that Tsvetanov was dishonest and incapable of combatting crime, while 31 per cent said he was doing a good job. Finally 37 per cent, have no opinion.

About 53 per cent of the people believe that the Interior Ministry was abusing its authority by spying on people.

The wiretapping controversy escalated after the weekly Galeria newspaper published a new batch of recordings, allegedly implicating Borissov in corruption.

But Galeria weekly is a newspaper allegedly under the influence of Alexei Petrov, a former special agent of the State National Security Agency SANS, (currently under house arrest), and faces serious organised crime charges following Bulgaria's anti-crime Operation Octopus.

The tapping scandal was triggered by the release of three tapes, revealing conversations between Customs Agency chief Vanyo Tanov, Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov and Deputy Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov.

During the dialogue, Borissov allegedly said "I have made commitments (to the owner of the brewery) and I have promised him that I will not bother him. I will not bother him".