A government minister is proposing to close the commission that discloses people’s ties to communist-era security services. Opponents say this is an attempt to ensure old crimes are forgotten.
Svetoslav Todorov
Bulgaria’s break from communism and its covert power structures has again become a topic of controversy owing to an initiative from the new government of Progressive Bulgaria and Prime Minister Rumen Radev.
In a television interview on June 25, Finance Minister Galab Donev said that COMDOS – the commission for uncovering former security service collaborators – will cease to exist by the end of the year, and its activities will be transferred to the State Archives Agency.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Ivo Hristov, the future of the Commission will be decided by September 15.
COMDOS is formally called the Commission for the Disclosure of Documents and the Declaration of Bulgarian Citizens’ Affiliation to State Security and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Army. It is more widely known as the Commission for Dossiers.
It has verified over 21,500 people as former state agents since 2007 – but Donev claimed it was “a natural move [to close it] … such a modest number of people is being investigated, and an overblown budget is being thrown into it”.
Donev, a close ally of Radev, is a former member of the pro-Moscow Bulgarian Socialist Party. As interim prime minister in 2022, he criticised Bulgaria’s break with Russia’s energy giant Gazprom.
Opposition forces in parliament condemned the plan. The centre-right Democratic Bulgaria stated: “This isn’t reform, it’s memory erasure”.
