site.btaVelichie Says Pro-Government Demonstrations Led by MRF-New Beginning Are Driven by Poverty and Fear

The opposition Velichie parliamentary group stated on Wednesday that poverty and fear have been used to manipulate people into participating in pro-government demonstrations led by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) – New Beginning.

The demonstrations have been organized in response to mass protests against the budget bills for 2026. According to the press office of MRF–New Beginning, the counterprotests are against the political tension stirred by the opposition, provocations, and attempts to destabilize the state on the eve of the introduction of the euro in Bulgaria, and against efforts to prevent the adoption of the budget scheme for next year.

In a declaration presented in the National Assembly by Velichie deputy floor leader Krasimira Katincharova, the group said that the counterprotests organized by MRF-New Beginning, in some places supported by GERB, are “a pathetic show driven by poverty and fear.” “We have seen and witnessed a poorly paid service delivered by people whom you have brought to the position of having to sell themselves to survive. Your power is bought with firewood,” Katincharova said. In her words, “when you buy power with firewood, you later govern with a stick.”

She said that people were bussed to the venues of the rallies, not knowing why they were there. They held their signs upside down and spoke incoherently; some said they supported the Bulgarian lev and did not support the government.

Katincharova said the government of Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov is not solving problems but pushing through interests. “You remain alone in power with no trust, no morality, no perspective. Therefore, leave peacefully,” she urged the incumbents.

According to her, MRF-New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski is “the great danger” as he “has placed himself above the state and acts as its overseer rather than its servant. He is ready to inflame ethnic and religious tensions and use them as a shield for his own survival.”

Katincharova accused Peevski of putting his finger in the still-healing wound from the Regeneration Process of the communist era, when ethnic Turks were forced to adopt Slav names. “You are trying to tear apart the healthy tissue of society and blackmail your own country with a card you consider invincible, the card of ethnic peace,” Katincharova said. She added that the Bulgarian people once again show more wisdom than their rulers. “No one will allow hatred to be turned into a lifeline for your personal salvation, or for your oligarchic interests.”

She also asked where the responsibility of Boyko Borissov is, who claimed that GERB has always been a guarantor of ethnic peace and tolerance. “Mr Borissov, you have repeated these words many times. Today, however, you remain silent while your partner, who has declared the state his, the ministers — his, the government — his, plays with ethnic peace as if it were a token in political roulette,” she said.

Katincharova also questioned why the prosecution has not initiated proceedings regarding “Mr Peevski’s actions and words promoting hatred, attempting to set different communities against one another, and spreading misleading claims that endanger ethnic and religious peace in Bulgaria.”

MECh leader Radostin Vasilev objected to Katincharova's remarks by saying: “It is blatant hypocrisy for a representative of an organized criminal group and a pyramid scheme, who four minutes ago voted with Delyan Peevski to abolish the Commission for Counteracting Corruption so that they would not be investigated or arrested, to speak about justice and schemes. Next week we will submit ten new alerts against you.”