site.btaContinue the Change Leader Vassilev Describes as "Absolute Political Repression" Mayor Kotsev's Detention

Approached by journalists here on Wednesday, Continue the Change (CC) leader Assen Vassilev commented that the case with Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev is an absolute political repression against Kotsev, and MRF - New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski is trying to help GERB leader Boyko Borissov win Varna (on the Black Sea) and Sofia after he failed to win them in the local elections. According to Vassilev, attacks are being made against the mayors of the two cities, which he described as “sewn with white threads”.

A police detention order was served on Kotsev and he was taken to a police station at around 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, his lawyer Milen Ralchev told reporters on Wednesday. The detention relates to a case by the Counter-Corruption Commission and the Sofia City Prosecution Office. 

Vassilev showed a Facebook post which, in his words, “Mr Borissov has not deleted yet, but the company in question has.” This is the company that filed the report against Kotsev, Vassilev specified. “You can see that they have been bragging since 2015 how they worked very well with GERB and Mr Borissov personally,” the CC Chairman said. For the last three years of the term in office of Varna's previous mayor, Ivan Portnih of GERB, the company in question won 17 public contracts worth over BGN 6 million, Vassilev claimed. He said that last year, the same company applied for a public procurement contract for which the alert against Kotsev was filed, and lost on September 2, 2024. The company appealed to the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) chaired by Yulia Nenkova, nominated to the post by GERB,  Vassilev noted.

A little more than a month later, the CPC upheld the municipality's decision, and the specific company appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court, which on December 17, 2024 upheld the CPC and municipality's decision and ordered the company to pay BGN 4,500 because it had lost the case, Vassilev said. “This is the moment when the lady in question remembered that she was being asked for a bribe and filed an alert to the Counter-Corruption Commission and the prosecution service,” Vassilev explained about the sender of the alert against Varna Mayor Kotsev.

"Why for eight months they had to investigate facts that can be verified in half an hour, I can not tell you, and I can not tell why they chose the day of [approval of] Bulgaria's entry into the euro area to do this ostentatious action and arrest Blahomir Kotsev," Vassilev commented. He underscored that CC will support its mayors. "The whole group is going to Varna, this time we will be at a protest with the citizens who want the mayor they elected, not the one they want to be appointed by the Counter-Corruption Commission," Vassilev added.