109 POLITICS - PARLIAMENT - POLITICAL DISMISSALS

MRF, GERB Cross Swords in Parliament
over Political Dismissals
in State Administration


Sofia, January 21 (BTA) - The Movement for Rights and Freedoms
(MRF) is keeping a "live chronicle of political repression" and
will read the names of Bulgarians who have been dismissed from
the state administration every Wednesday. In less than a month
another 30 have lost their jobs, bringing the number of those
listed in the chronicle of political repression to 295, MRF
Deputy Floor Leader Stanislav Anastassov said in Parliament from
the rostrum, reading an MRF declaration.

Those dismissed have the required qualifications and experience,
have passed through the procedure of competition and match the
respective job descriptions, Anastassov said. The MRF has not
appointed staff without higher education. "They have only one
fault - they have been designated in one way or another as being
close to the MRF. The brutally dismissed people are victims of
political repression of two xenophobic parties of the incumbent
majority - the Patriotic Front and the Reformist Bloc,"
Anastassov added.

He read out the names of some of dismissed people and promised
to continue to announce the names of the "victims" of political
repression every Wednesday, after which the "chronicle" will
also be presented in the European Parliament. "We owe these
black statistics and detailed information to the Bulgarian
public, to our European and Atlantic partners," he said.

In response, the Deputy Floor Leader of GERB, Tsveta
Karayancheva, said that 1,180 had been dismissed under the
Interior Ministry Act in the first six months of the governance
of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), MRF and Ataka, while
only 705 had been dismissed in three years under Prime Minister
Boyko Borissov's first cabinet. She also presented a list of
people who had been dismissed for political reasons by Plamen
Oresharski's cabinet.

Karayancheva countered the list presented by Anastassov with a
parallel survey of GERB of its time in opposition in the
previous parliament. This revealed that in the first three
months of the coalition government of the BSP, MRF and Ataka, 86
persons had been dismissed in Blagoevgrad (Southwestern
Bulgaria), including 12 from the forestry division alone. In
Varna (on the Black Sea) the professionals dismissed for
political reasons numbered 29, in Pleven (North Central
Bulgaria) 82, in Razgrad (Northeastern Bulgaria) 54 and in Sofia
Region 101. Karayancheva backed up her claims with names and
said she had put them into four groups, including long-standing
directors and employees appointed by GERB. /BR,DD/