“The result of the changes in the services is the crushing of inconvenient opponents, ever more aggressive political repression, and the ever more brazen plunder of public resources and private business – about which we will be learning less and less,” President Rumen Radev said in Varna.

• Parliament removed the president’s authority to appoint the heads of security services

The head of state also commented on the case of Blagomir Kotsev, the mayor of Varna, who was detained on corruption charges amid reports of a Ukrainian national acting as a secret witness in the case. He cited July press reports saying that the acting head of the State Agency for National Security (SANS) had expelled the man and barred him from entering Bulgaria over public-order threats and money laundering suspicions. However, two weeks later, the agency chief rescinded his own order and allowed the witness back into the country.

• Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev remains in custody; MEPs call for sanctions against Bulgaria

“Who pressured the head of the state agency into taking this risk and disregarding his own reasoning, and why?” Radev asked rhetorically, urging the relevant parliamentary committee to clarify all the circumstances. He added that he had not been informed of the case, which was in breach of the law.