site.btaVelichie Floor Leader: By Keeping Varna Mayor Detained, Peevski Shows He Controls the State

Velichie Floor Leader Ivelin Mihaylov told reporters in Parliament on Wednesday that his party is outraged by the Sofia Court of Appeal's decision from Tuesday to uphold the measure imposed by the lower court and to keep Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev in custody. Kotsev is under investigation for corruption and participation in an organized crime group. Mihaylov alleged that Movement for Rights and Freedoms - New Beginning Floor Leader Delyan Peevski demonstrated his power to control the State and punish his opponents by having the court keep Kotsev in custody.

Mihaylov added that Peevski's move may have also been a message to GERB leader Boyko Borissov to show "what will happen to him [Borissov] if he continues to grumble".

The Floor Leader of Velichie then showed a graph drawn by a teacher and former school principal, which alleged that the village of Varbitsa's (Northeastern Bulgaria) Mayor Merdin Bayram and Deputy Mayor Beysim Mustafa are both involved in corruption. He said: "This is a scheme for controlling and taking over a municipality that involves companies, individuals, [it shows] who takes what orders, many things [are] proven by recordings. If this mayor is tried for corruption, he should get a life sentence." He concluded that people living in Varbitsa have no freedom.

Mihaylov stated: "We can tell [President of the European Commission] Ursula von der Leyen that if there are invaders here, no matter where they come from, Bulgarians will welcome them as liberators with bread and salt [traditional way of greeting guests during official ceremonies in Bulgaria], because the EU has failed in that it misled us into believing that we have European values, freedom, a law that applies to everyone, a law without borders, rules without borders."

The leader of Velichie condemned the EU for supporting the dictatorship in Russia and concluded: "What we are going to do is take it down."