National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP) leader and former prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg said that bringing him in connection with the communist-era secret services and the Russian KGB was propaganda for the upcoming municipal elections and an attempt to discredit him and his party.

On September 22 2007, opposition party Order, Rule of Law and Justice leader Yane Yanev said that the party was in possession of documents proving Saxe-Coburg collaborated with the secret services, mediapool.bg reported. The documents were in the archive of the Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union.

Yanev said Saxe-Coburg was recruited because of his affection for gambling.

Order, Rule of Law and Justice demanded the commission in charge of the declassification of the former secret services’ archives to verify if there is information about Saxe-Coburg’s past as an agent for the secret services.

In his statement Saxe-Coburg said that he “got used to being a target for undeserved offences and slander” over the past several years. Despite that, Saxe-Coburg said he did not expect “some people to fall so low and to become authors of such an infamous campaign.”

NMSP leader said that some groups in Bulgaria did not understand that the future was not built with “old fashioned attempts at discrediting and pitiful scribblings but with respect to the truth, with ideals and principles”.

Saxe-Coburg said, that such campaigns underestimated the intellect of the Bulgarian citizens and harmed the image of the country.

Declassification committee leader Evtim Kostadinov called on Yanev to submit to the committee the documents he claims to have in possession.