When Roumen Petkov announced his resignation as Interior Minister on April 13 he said, “I have never in my life betrayed people or causes.” Indeed, through his entire career, Petkov has always taken a strong stand in defending his work or the work of Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) of which he has been a member since 1991.

It was this kind of behaviour that earned him the reputation of “the strong man” within the BSP, even though the party’s leader is Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev. Petkov worked consistently for this image and when the Cabinet was formed in 2005 it was no surprise that he took the post of Interior Minister.

As a graduate mathematician Petkov has been a man of calculated risk. Born in Pleven, central Bulgaria, Petkov took the risk of entering politics in 1991 just two years after the fall of communism. The 30-year-old Petkov joined BSP, the successor of Bulgarian Communist Party, in a moment when the new reborn socialists were not exactly at the peak of their popularity.

His loyalty paid well in 1995 when BSP was surprisingly back in power after the fall of the first right-wing government and Petkov became one of the youngest mayors in Bulgaria by winning the elections in Pleven.

This was when his unconventional style started to show. As mayor he got involved in several scandals that led to four cases being filed against him by Pleven’s prosecutors. In 1997, he was even suspended from office for 10 days in relation to one of the investigations. The cases featured maleficence in offices, causing ecological damages and, last but not least, he was accused of hooliganism and obstruction of police work, something he later fought against as interior minister. Such a reputation was not exactly the best strategy for winning a second term and the then BSP leader Georgi Purvanov decided to summon Petkov to Sofia. This was how, in 1999, he became chief secretary on the party’s coalition policy and Petkov’s days as an apparatchik started. 

The year 2001 was a good one for the BSP and Petkov’s history. Purvanov surprisingly won the elections for President and left the leadership of the party in the hands of the young Sergei Stanishev. For Petkov the success was even bigger because he was in charge of Purvanov’s campaign and the image of election winner added to his reputation. It gave him the power to be in charge of BSP’s next three election campaigns. The reward, however, was the post of deputy chairman of BSP’s supreme council and a seat in Parliament.

The real reward came in August 2005 when BSP won the largest share of the votes in an election campaign again managed by Petkov. After the elections the three parties that formed the ruling coalition went on for more than a month in trying to distribute the cabinet seats but there was one name that no one questioned and Petkov did not have to wait long for Stanishev to offer him the post of Interior Minister.   

He took the job at a time when the most popular public figure in the country was the interior ministry’s chief secretary Boiko Borissov who represented one of the parties in the ruling coalition, National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP). A strong character, Petkov showed little tolerance for Borissov’s public stunts and just less than a month after becoming a minister Borissov resigned, citing Petkov’s structural changes within the ministry as the main reason.

Petkov’s challenge for the most popular person in the country was once again a calculated risk because it prompted a massive disruption within the NMSP, which eventually led to BSP becoming the leading party in power.

Structural changes were on Petkov’s list of priorities but one of these changes was so surprising that the opposition asked for his resignation a month after his appointment. After immense public pressure Petkov had to abandon the idea of forming a public council that was supposed to “consult” him on reforms within the ministry. The problem was that the council was going to be formed of former interior ministry’s employees some of whom used to work for communist-era secret services. 

On the crime front, Petkov’s reign was marked by one of the most debated public murders in Bulgaria, which still remains unsolved. On October 26 2005 banker Emil Kyulev was shot dead in his car on his way to work in central Sofia during rush hour. The public’s discontent gave Petkov the reason for launching his first-ever massive police operation called “Respect”.

Aiming for quick results against organised crime, Petkov announced a long list of arrests of alleged criminals. One of these arrests, however, was the reason why Petkov was asked to resign for a second time in less than two months. The small-scale drug dealer Angel “Chorata” Dimitrov died in police custody. At first defending the actions of the five police officers, Petkov later had to admit that Dimitrov was beaten to death by them. The five are currently appealing against court sentences that gave them a total of 91 years of imprisonment.

In May 2006 Petkov prompted a debate on the sensitive issue of communist secret services archives by disclosing the files of five journalists some of whom were among Petkov’s harshest critics. Petkov’s skills as a mathematician failed him this time.

Instead of focusing on the dark past of the journalists the public’s discontent was aimed at Petkov who suddenly appeared to have the power to disclose dossiers of his choice. He never did it again.

One of his biggest failures, however, was the arrest of Ivan Grigorov, head of Bulgarian Red Cross Organisation. Grigorov was arrested in front of TV cameras in 2006, accused of diverting humanitarian aid. Petkov described him as one of the biggest criminals in Bulgaria, a quote that was reported by CNN and Euronews. Two years later Grigorov was acquitted and received an apology from Petkov.

During his term Petkov dedicated a lot of effort in promoting people  entrusted with  fighting organised crime. He became known for promoting people from outside Sofia to high positions in the ministry. Such was the case of Iliya Iliev, the ministry’ chief secretary, Vanyo Tanov, head of the ministry’s chief directorate for fighting organised crime, and Ivan Ivanov, Tanov’s deputy.

Iliev came from Pleven, Tanov came from Rousse and Ivanov from the small town of Rila. Today all three are former ministry’s employees with Ivanov and Iliev currently under investigation for leaking classified information from the ministry. 

However, it was Tanov’s words that led to Petkov’s confession that he had held meetings with people under investigation and that classified information has been leaking from the ministry to the mafia.

That was why it was not a surprise when on April 13 Petkov admitted he has made just one mistake in his days as a minister. “I hold the responsibility for my hiring policy which has resulted in me misleading the leadership of the state....for there have been cases where I myself have been betrayed by people”.