site.btaMRF - New Beginning Leader Peevski Says, No One Will Take Power through the Streets, Claims He Can Bring More People

MRF - New Beginning Floor Leader Delyan Peevski commented Thursday on the protest against the 2026 draft budgets, which was held on Wednesday in Sofia. "No one will take power through the streets," he said.

The protest was organized by the opposition Continue the Change party, part of the Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria parliamentary group. Citizens filled the streets in central Sofia and a square known as the “Power Triangle”, where the new National Assembly building is flanked by the Presidency and the Council of Ministers. The assembled citizens formed a human chain around the National Assembly building and tried to stop MPs from leaving. Some MPs left as late as 1 a.m.

Peevski described it as abnormal for MPs “to be chased from office to office, harassed and told ‘go downstairs’.” “Are we bringing back the People’s Court - is that what they want?” he asked. “Do they want me to block Parliament every day and call them downstairs?” the MRF - New Beginning Floor Leader added, arguing that he has no fewer supporters.

The People’s Court was a special court of Communist Bulgaria, established outside the constitutional framework of law after the 1944 coup d’état. Its judgments were not subject to appeal and were to be enforced immediately. The Interior Ministry reported that 28,630 people implicated as culprits had been arrested by mid-November 1944. Of these, more than 11,000 were charged, 2,730 were sentenced to death, and 1,305 to life imprisonment.

“There will be no People’s Court,” Peevski went on to say. “Is what happened yesterday normal - police officers being beaten and taken to hospital - is that democracy?” he added. “It’s another year now - the Communist Party will not succeed. I am the guarantor of that. There is democracy - and there will be,” Peevski said.

The MP explained that everything that is social and benefits people will be defended and that MRF–New Beginning will stand by it.

Many protesters on Wednesday held up signs mocking Peevski. In 2021, he was designated by the United States under the Global Magnitsky Act for corruption and influence peddling. He is challenging the designation in a US court, with his lawyers arguing that there is no evidence of wrongdoing. In 2023, the United Kingdom also sanctioned Peevski for his alleged involvement “in attempts to exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian society through bribery and the use of his media empire.”