„The assessment will be given by the Bulgarian citizens in the elections. We fulfilled what we promised them before the last elections - that we would do everything possible for Bulgaria to have a regular government and for our country to have stability. We kept our word”. This was stated in an interview for the program „In Focus” by Stanislav Balabanov from ITN.
Regarding the support for the cabinet given by Delyan Peevski, Balabanov said: „We have not governed with the MRF. The support of a legislative program by other parties is their decision. If they refused to support the legislative program that we from ITN, BSP and GERB wrote, it simply would not have happened, Bulgaria would not have been a member of Schengen and the eurozone, and the cabinet would have fallen much earlier”, said Balabanov.
Balabanov also answered the question about key votes, such as the security of Borisov and Peevski, which remained in the revote.
„The security was something that created a stir in the public space purely from the media perspective. While Asen Vassilev was the Minister of Finance of the state, during Peevski's official participation with him in power, Vassilev knew how much the security of these people cost on an annual basis – over 3 million leva. At that time, Asen Vassilev had no problems with the security”, said Balabanov.
„With all laws, there is enough time between the first and second reading. The idea was to achieve the necessary effect and not endanger the security of others,” said Balabanov.
Balabanov said that it is not logical for secretaries of the president and people who hold ordinary government positions in the presidential building to use NSO.
„When we were at the last consultations, we received a personal request from Radev that the Bulgarian presidential institution needs to look more representative when there are foreign visits,” said Balabanov. „Initially, we supported the logic that ordinary employees should not use NSO,” he added.
He believes that the mistakes of the ITN were rather emotional. However, he pointed out that they also had successes.
„We did something phenomenal for me – Boyko Borisov will never be Prime Minister again”, said Balabanov. And he added: “Bulgarian citizens, when we all take a test before them, judge who should be with what weight and with what responsibility”.
”You cannot patronize sects and pretend that it didn't happen”, said Balabanov regarding the criticism of the ITN towards the PP-DB after the “Petrohan” case. He threatened that they would continue to politicize the case as much as they need.
For the acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, Balabanov said that he was not a legitimate Prosecutor General. “Because the mandate has expired, the case is related to the mandate. He is in a pre-existing situation”, said Balabanov.
He added that he did not believe in sociological surveys. "Always, except for the first 1-2 times, the sociological agencies have put us under the line, but the Bulgarian citizens have refuted them," said Balabanov.