On April 9, Interior Minister Roumen Petkov proved his invincibility by receiving the full support of the three ruling parties in one of the biggest rows ever to involve the Interior Ministry.

A day before Parliament was scheduled to discuss a no-confidence motion filed by the opposition on the grounds of “the Government’s ties with organised crime”, the leaders of Bulgarian Socialist Party, National Movement for Stability and Progress and Movement for Rights and Freedoms backed Petkov’s reform proposals to restructure the ministry.

A statement on the Government’s website said that Petkov’s report on the ministry’s work in the past 18 years was “a good basis for clear and deep reform that will clear the ministry’s system and make it more transparent and effective”.

For the first time in three years, the ruling parties said that there was something wrong in the way the ministry had operated under Petkov, but not a word was said on the subject of his resignation. A day after Bulgaria made headlines on Euronews with the two public murders of a businessman and a small-scale mobster, the ruling coalition council “expressed its support to Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev in light of the no confidence motion discussions”.

The report Petkov was asked to prepare by Stanishev on April 1 said that the ministry’s problems stemmed from the policies of former governments and “the frequent dismissals of ministry staff undertaken by them”.

In light of the issue regarding his contacts with people under investigation, Petkov’s ideas for reforms suggested keeping the ministry off the list of institutions that can use special surveillance means.

On the same day that the coalition council met, another meeting took place. Parliament’s committee on internal security and public order discussed Petkov’s contacts with people under investigation. His statement that he had met these people “in the best interest of the ministry’s work” prompted a debate whether a minister should act as a secret agent.

Although the committee is dominated by members of the ruling majority, some of the statements committee chairperson Mincho Spassov made during the week suggested that the committee report was going to be highly critical. In the aftermath of the ruling coalition council meeting, however, Spassov told reporters that the final version of the report did not find anything wrong with Petkov doing “field work”, as President Georgi Purvanov called it. “My opinion is that Petkov’s behaviour can be described as blameworthy. If I was in his shoes, I would have resigned,” Spassov said.

The Interior Ministry row, which features allegations of information leaks, corruption, ties to organised crime and breaches of internal regulations, has been the main subject of public interest for more than a month.

According to polling agency Alfa Research, the row has taken its toll on public confidence in the Government’s ability to cope with organised crime. On April 6, Alfa Research published the results of a survey among 1018 people on March 28 to April 2, which had 59 per cent of respondents saying that Petkov had to resign as a result of the controversy. Just nine per cent agreed with Petkov that the attacks against him were the result of his good work in fighting organised crime. Another 44 per cent thought that Petkov knew about the ties his subordinates had with organised crime. Just 27 per cent, however, said that they had followed every twist and turn of the scandal, which resulted in the arrests of current and former high-profile police officers, committee hearings, parliamentary debates and drafting of reports.