THE Bulgarian government's refusal this week to dismiss its interior minister over alleged links with organized crime has seriously undermined the country's stability and credibility abroad, according to analysts. “The socialist-led government has already lost public confidence and runs the risk of soon seeing this lack of trust turn into social contempt and anger,” political analyst Evgeny Daynov said. “Its inaction not only makes it look helpless in the eyes of our European partners but might soon be perceived by the European Commission as deliberately provocative,” he added. “We have had enough angry signals from Brussels for (Interior Minister Rumen) Petkov to go and for emergency remedial action at the ministry.” The three-party coalition government has come under fire over opposition claims that the interior ministry served as a key link between power and organized crime. Tapped phone calls revealed that high-ranking officers at the ministry leaked information to criminals under investigation. A top crime-busting chief and a former ministry chief of staff w ere arrested and charged and Petkov himself admitted to having contacts with major organized crime suspects. But he refused to resign and the coalition leaders decided Wednesday to keep him in office after he promised sweeping changes at the ministry. “The government's handling of the situation raises doubt over its ability to give an adequate reaction to any future crisis,” said political analyst Boryana Dimitrova of the Alpha Research institute. The government survived a no-confidence vote in parliament Friday, but there were signs of rising tensions, as one of the coalition partners, the centrist National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP), chose to abstain from the vote. Meanwhile, a recent poll from the institute showed that support for Petkov remaining in office had plummeted to nine percent. “We registered a serious slump in Petkov's popularity: 59 percent of the people, including 39 percent of his own Socialist party electorate, were categorical that he has to resign,” Dimitrova said. “It is obvious that the Socialists are losing public support and when a Socialist government loses support it falls from power,” Daynov added, pointing back to the 1996-1997 economic crisis and the last Socialist government, led by Prime Minister Jean Videnov, which was toppled by public protests. “A range of risks (is) hanging over the government like an avalanche,” he warned, not the least of which would be to irritate Brussels. “The scandal is unprecedented and massive - high-ranking police and politicians and the mobsters are linked. And the government's answer is ‘Well...' This cannot but enrage Brussels.” Bulgaria could now face “sharp criticism in the upcoming report of the European Commission on Bulgaria's reform progress, the possible triggering of a safeguard clause against Bulgaria in the area of internal affairs, and further freezing of money from the European funds,” Daynov said. The EU has already partly frozen at least 450 million euros in subsidy payments, and Brussels called Tuesday for “urgent action” to fight organized crime following two high-profile killings in Sofia this week. Georgy Stoev, known as the chronicler of the underworld for his nine books on the Bulgarian mafia, was shot in the head Monday outside a central Sofia hotel. The night before, Borislav Georgiev, the chief executive of a large energy company, was killed in his apartment building with two bullets to the head. “Looking at it from abroad, all this portrays Bulgaria as a very risky country,” said Tihomir Bezlov from the Sofia-based think-tank Center for the Study of Democracy. Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 but is still under close scrutiny from Brussels for failing to meet its pledges in the fight against corruption and organized crime. The European Commission is due to issue its next monitoring report on Bulgaria's progress in fighting corruption and organized crime in July. __
