Interior Minister Roumen Petkov said that he has not resigned nor had any intention of doing so. Petkov was quoted by the Bulgarian Focus news agency on March 31 2008 following speculations in Bulgarian media saying that Petkov had resigned from office after meeting with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev.

The rumours about Petkov’s resignation appeared after he publicly admitted that he had held meetings with people under investigation. Petkov said that he had held the meetings in the best interest of the ministry and Bulgaria.

He also admitted to having had phone conversations with such people, simply because they were ringing him, and not answering the calls would have made them suspicious.

Regarding the row surrounding Petkov, a group of municipal councillors from the town of Pleven, central Bulgaria, issued a declaration on March 27 2008 calling for Stanishev to dismiss Petkov. Petkov was Pleven’s mayor in the period 1996 to 2000 as a representative of Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), currently chaired by Prime Minister Sergei Stansihev.

The declaration was signed by all councillors from Pleven’s right-wing-dominated council with the exception of the BSP councillors, who did not signed the document. At the same time a group of 22 intellectuals, again from Pleven, issued a declaration on March 30 stating their support for Petkov.

“The campaign against Petkov is a conspiracy and the ministry’s problems are not his own but inherited from previous years,” the declaration read.