Tatyana Doncheva, one of the highest-profile politicians of the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), compared her role in the row over the State Agency for National Security (SANS) to a joke. On October 3, she told Bulgarian National Television a joke about the rabbit being eaten by the bad wolves and Doncheva saw herself as the bunny in the SANS’ scandal.
Doncheva has good reasons to feel this way. If nothing else she has plenty of experience in confronting hardcore BSP elements on law enforcement issues. One of these confrontations resulted in interior minister Roumen Petkov resigning from his post.
Now Doncheva is again backed into a corner, with little if no support from fellow party members. She was the one who started the row over SANS, the brainchild of BSP leader and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev. She was the one who told journalists that SANS had checked her phone records without explanation and, later, she was the one who told journalists that SANS had 50 journalists under surveillance.
Naturally, all that public speaking on sensitive issues such as national security, classified information and the media being under surveillance by the secret services, did not do much for the popularity of the BSP and Stanishev ahead of next year’s elections. The right-wing opposition, even in its weakened condition, now had plenty of opportunity to show that it was very much alive, and the BSP has Doncheva to blame for that.
Unfortunately, the BSP had little way to control her, since she long ago showed that she did not care about party discipline. Her position as a member of Parliament’s committee on internal order and public security gave her all the legal authority she needed to summon SANS’ head Petko Sertov for questioning, paying him visits and asking him whatever she wanted.
And that was exactly what she did prior to informing the media about SANS’ actions, which made her a popular politician with journalists and the public, but not with the BSP.
What the BSP chose to do, instead of risking public discontent by isolating Doncheva, was to finally apply the law under which SANS was created, which stated that a Parliamentary subcommittee would be set up to monitor SANS’ work. The BSP’s failure to form the subcommittee was the opposition’s main criticism of SANS, simply because there is no Parliamentary control over its work.
BSP spokesperson Angel Naidenov assured reporters on October 6 that a subcommittee would be formed. It will strip Parliament’s committee on public order and internal security of its duties in relation to the work of SANS. Asked whether Doncheva would be nominated for the new subcommittee, Naidenov declined to comment.
The joke
A group of hungry wolves caught a little bunny but as they were about to eat it, the bunny told them that deeper into the woods was a flock of sheep. The wolves decided to let the bunny show them the sheep instead of eating it. So the bunny led them to the sheep and the wolves had a feast. Unfortunately, they ate the little bunny as well. An hour later, the wolves decided to put a tombstone on the little bunny’s grave as a sign of their appreciation for telling them where the sheep were. One suggested that the tombstone should say, “Here rests a friend.” “But how can we say we were friends after we ate him?” one wolf asked. “Ok, then we can say that here rests a foe,” suggested another. “But he led us to the sheep, he wasn’t our enemy.” In the end the wolves finally agreed to put on the tombstone the words: “Here lies a consultant.”
