site.btaVarna Residents Protest in Support of Mayor Kotsev while Municipal Election Commission Reviews Complaints Seeking His Dismissal

Varna residents again took to the streets in protest in defence of the detained Mayor Blagomir Kotsev on Sunday, while the Municipal Election Commission (MEC) in the city reviews three complaints seeking his removal from office.

The protesters carried signs reading “Varna is not for sale” and “Blago is under arrest because he is mayor”. They chanted “Freedom”, “Peevski to prison”, and “Mafia out”.

The protesters were told that a lawyer representing Kotsev was present at the Commission’s meeting.

Kotsev, elected mayor on the ticket of the opposition Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria in November 2023 - one of very few opposition mayors, including also that of Sofia, was arrested on July 8 following a tip-off for corruption by a failed public procurement tenderer. He was charged with participation in an organized crime group accused of engaging in abuse of office, bribery and money laundering. The court consistently rejected his applications for release from custody, and accepted the prosecutors' argument that he may interfere while the pre-trial proceedings were going on. Kotsev and four co-defendants were indicted on November 13 for conspiracy to commit bribery and coercion in order to obtain an economic benefit.

Kotsev's Continue the Change party insist that his arrest is part of a government campaign targeting the opposition. Large-scale protests in his support have been staged in Varna, Sofia and other major cities. The Renew Europe group in the European Parliament where Continue the Change is affiliated, sees Kotsev's extended detention as "an onslaught on democratic institutions and rule of law in Bulgaria".