After a party leadership meeting of the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB) on October 12, party leader Ivan Kostov told journalists that DSB would request the closure of the State Agency for National Security (SANS).

SANS has been at the centre of a row after it became public that the agency had investigated the telephone records of members of parliament. On September 3 2008, a group of MPs who had visited the SANS headquarters to discuss the investigation, on their way out told journalists that about 50 journalists were part of an investigation by SANS called "Gallery".
SANS had earlier this year closed down the website opasnite.net for publishing anonymous stories, consisting largely of gossip about the private lives of Bulgarian politicians, which allegedly included "classified information".

Besides closing SANS, DSB intended to also push for the investigation of allegations that the Bulgarian Socialist Party election campaign had been funded by companies accused of abusing EU funds, Kostov said.

Kostov held Bulgaria's president and prime minister responsible for the row involving SANS at a time when the country was threatened by the effects of the global economic crisis, Bulgarian broadcaster Mediapool said.

Mediapool quoted Kostov as saying that the main task of a security agency was the reduction of domestic political risk and the creation of better conditions for foreign investments.

"Those in power will respond to this crisis like a mafia, sacrifices will be made and a new balance will be found only so this mafia system will survive," Kostov was quoted as saying by Mediapool.

Leader of ultra-nationalist party Ataka, Volen Siderov, was quoted by Focus news agency as saying that if the DSB reasoning to close SANS was followed through, "Bulgaria's parliament would have to be closed as it is the biggest obstacle for the economic development of the country."
According to Siderov, an organisation like SANS was necessary and the question was merely how it would be managed and controlled.

Former director of the former State Security Yuriy Georgiev was quoted by Focus news agency as saying "there are no services of this kind anywhere in the world that are completely open for public and civil control."

Borislav Bulgarinov, member of parliament for the Bulgarian People's Union, was quoted by Focus news agency as saying that the DSB proposal to close SANS would not find support because "an entire institution can not be closed only because one of its employees does not do their work within what the law allows and works according to a political agenda."

Dimitar Ivanov, former head of Department 6 of Directorate 6 of the former State Security and publisher of the Zemya daily was quoted by Focus news agency as saying "I would not recommend a cleanup at SANS after the rows of the past weeks."
"There will probably be two or three people that will have to go along with Ivan Drashkov, people from his closest circles, Ivanov was quoted as saying.

"Special services are a very delicate matter and staff policy there is conducted extremely carefully," Ivanov was quoted as saying.

A poll on Dnevnik.bg among readers showed that 76 per cent of those who took part in the poll thought the row was to be attributed to the settling of political scores.