site.btaDemocratic Bulgaria: MRF-NB’s Delyan Peevski Is Behind Operation at Ministry of Energy about BOTAS Deal

After the action in Varna, MRF – New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski has decided to launch an action at the Ministry of Energy and probe into the BOTAS deal, said the co-chair of Yes, Bulgaria and MP from Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Ivaylo Mirchev in the National Assembly. Preliminary proceedings are underway regarding the contract with Turkish energy company BOTAS at the Ministry of Energy and offices of public gas supplier Bulgargaz and transmission operator Bulgartransgaz, the prosecutor's office announced earlier on Wednesday.

According to Mirchev, CC-DB wants everything about the deal to be disclosed.

“They have become very active. The topic of BOTAS is on the agenda. On the one hand, they are attacking inconvenient opposition members, and on the other, they are now attacking President Radev,” said the leader of Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria and MP from the CC-DB, Atanas Atanasov.

“I am convinced that there is no evidence against the Mayor of Varna and that this is a fabrication. We want to see the institutions provide information about what is going on,” the MP added.

At around 11:30 pm on Tuesday, a police arrest warrant was served on Mayor Blagomir Kotsev and he was taken to one of the police stations, his lawyer Milen Ralchev said earlier. A protest in support of Mayor Kotsev is scheduled for 6 pm in front of the Varna City Hall building. The arrest is based on a case brought by the Counter-Corruption Commission and the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office.

“We are in a situation where repressive power in the state is being usurped by a certain group of people. This usurpation is being used to attack those who are politically inconvenient, as is the case in Varna,” Atanasov said.

“The Commission for the confiscation of illegal assets is represented by a person whose term of office I am unaware of. For more than a year and a half, there has been no regular secretary general of the Ministry of the Interior, and now there is an acting chairman of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), an acting head of illegal assets Commission, and an acting prosecutor general. All repressive power is exercised by people who perform the duties assigned to them by those in power,” Atanasov commented. He added that he had asked Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov when there would be a regular chairman of SANS.

According to Mirchev, through the commissions for counteracting corruption and illegal asset forfeiture, Peevski targets mayors and councillors from the opposition. “GERB and MRF have the most mayors. None of them have been touched, which most likely means that there is no corruption among them,” Ivaylo Mirchev added.

Anyone who has broken the law must be held accountable, and that is the first rule, but when this show ends with a conviction for Bulgaria and the payment of compensation, for example to Blagomir Kotsev, then [GERB leader] Borissov and Peevski must personally take money out of their own pockets and pay this compensation,” commented Yes, Bulgaria co-chair and MP from CC-DB Bozhidar Bozhanov. According to him, Borissov and Peevski “bear personal responsibility for the mafia-isation of law enforcement agencies and are leading us towards Central Asia.”