Prime minister Rumen Radev said the government will decide the fate of National Protection Service (NSO) chief Maj Gen Emil Tonev, and will take the result of the investigation into account. He spoke to reporters after voting in the presidential election.

The incident happened on Thursday outside the office of "Progressive Bulgaria". An NSO officer pushed journalist Sonya Koltukilieva to the ground after she opened the door of the car of parliament speaker Mihaela Dotsova. The opposition called for both Dotsova and Tonev to resign. President Iliana Yotova also called on the NSO chief to quit, and he handed in his resignation days ago.

See also: Iotova to ask National Protection Service chief to resign after incident with journalist

Radev said he does not want to be led by emotions while an election is under way. He said there are failings in the NSO's work.

The prime minister called the incident a provocation. He said the opposition blew it up out of all proportion to stir public anger and, at his expense, to justify to voters a coalition that wants the speaker to go. "This plan failed," Radev said. He believes the opposition parties in parliament are working together more and more, but do not want to admit it.

Radev said he has never seen media briefings held inside security guards' cars, in Bulgaria or in any other country. He said this goes beyond the professional standards and ethics of journalism.

He said that under the NSO law, officers' orders in a critical situation are binding on the person they guard, whatever their post. Dotsova could not get out because the door was shut and locked the second time, and locking takes a few seconds.

Radev's own car locks when he gets in. He said he cannot say when, or by whom, the door of Dotsova's car was locked or left unlocked. The investigation will establish that, he said.

"Mihaela Dotsova has broken neither the law nor morality," he said.