site.btaCC-DB's Mirchev to Borissov: “No One Paid Protesters, They Are Genuinely Disgusted with You"

"No one paid the protesters – they are genuinely disgusted with you," MP Ivaylo Mirchev of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria said in a Facebook post reacting to remarks by GERB leader Boyko Borisov, who suggested that the late-2025 protests which led to the government's resignation, had been paid for by smuggling businesses. 

Borissov said: "Ever since [Continue the Change leader and former Finance Minister Assen] Vassilev ceased being the sole master of the Customs and tax service, over BGN 14 billion more have entered the public purse - in less than a year. Can you imagine how smugglers are rubbing their hands and hoping that [President Rumen] Radev, Assen Vassilev, or some other will come and remove us, who stopped their smuggling business, and how tax and VAT fraudsters are praying and lighting candles in the churches we built, wishing we weren’t here so they could cheat again. And a large part of them financed the protests. They know it themselves, and people in Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria have already started speaking about it,” Borisov said.

Mirchev commented that some time ago, Borisov made the "audacious statement that he fell from power on his own". "But today he went even further, claiming that the protests were financed by tax and VAT fraudsters," Mirchev wrote.

“Let me make it clear: people across the country brought you down with unprecedented protests. You did not fall on your own. They removed you because this government, which Borisov boasts about and calls ‘the best,’ was completely subservient to Peevski,” he added.

According to Ivaylo Mirchev, Borisov tried to create some false narrative about what happened, "as he always does". "This disregard for people’s intelligence has caught up with him – the belief that any nonsense and lies can be sold as truth. They cannot. Only to his inner circle can he peddle this nonsense," Mirchev commented.

Mirchev also noted several important tasks that Borisov has yet to complete: getting signatures from the GERB parliamentary group for the resignation of the head of the anti-corruption commission, fully restoring machine voting, and removing the National Protection Service security detail for himself and MRF - New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski’s. “For these, he shows no courage,” Mirchev added.

Ivaylo Mirchev emphasized that funds for the sound system and stage construction for the protests were raised via voluntary donations, totaling some tens of thousands of leva for each event. He also noted that after the first protest, Borisov had claimed it was funded by the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association.