Security chief resigns after guard pushes journalist
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Emil Tonev has resigned as head of the National Security Service (NSO) following an incident in which a guard pushed journalist Sonya Koltuklieva. The court has already ordered the guard’s release from detention, while members of the Supreme Judicial Council have suggested the original arrest was an overreaction. It is a swift end for a security chief in a country where official accountability is rarely so immediate.
The judiciary is otherwise occupied with electing four representatives to the Supreme Judicial Council. The vote proceeds despite allegations that hundreds of prosecutors accepted payments from Borislav Sarafov, a detail that has revived long-standing questions about whether the country’s prosecutors are choosing their own representatives or merely their own interests.
With the presidential election approaching, polls show the gap between the leading candidates is narrowing to 12.8 points. The winner will inherit a capital whose heating company owes nearly a billion euros in debt and a national balance sheet that has just dropped out of the top three least-indebted countries in the European Union.