Opposition socialist party starts petition calling for resignation of government

We want a change in the model through resignation of the government. Bulgaria is ruled by a parallel state. This was said at a press conference by the leader the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Korneliya Ninova, after a meeting of the party's Executive Bureau on June 9.

"We are starting a petition in every city to call for the resignation of the government. We want a people’s vote of no confidence. If the petition receives strong support, it could turn into a no-confidence vote," Ninova said.

The petition is not intended to be partisan and the BSP hopes to unite all people who are dissatisfied with the country's governance.

The proposal is made by the party's Executive Bureau and will be approved by the BSP National Council on Saturday.

The opposition will also propose the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry committee to investigate claims by fugitive gambling businessman Vassil Bozhkov of government's abuse of power and corruption.

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Once considered to be the wealthiest Bulgarian person, Vassil Bozhkov lost his gambling business in early 2020 when Parliament passed the amendments to the Gambling Act thus banning lottery games organised by private operators.

On January 29, the Prosecutor’s Office pressed charges against Bozhkov on seven counts and then in February charged him with more, thus the criminal charges against him adding up to 18. He has been charged with evasion of more than 700 million BGN in gambling licensing fees, money laundering, extortion, bribery, murder, abetting in murder, attempted rape, leading an organized crime group, trading in influence, and unlawful possession of cultural assets. The businessman left the country prior to completion of the inquiries and is now in the United Arab Emirates, from where Bulgaria is seeking his extradition.

In mid May, he published on Facebook text messages that he claims to have exchanged with Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov. According to the messages, Minister Goranov gave “valuable instructions” to Maria Filipova, predecessor of the former Chairman of the State Gambling Commission Alexander Georgiev, in favour of Vassil Bozhkov. In the second text message Bozhkov complains that the State Gambling Commission sabotaged the activity of his gambling company and received an answer that the problem will be solved.

In a series of disclosures on Facebook after that, Vassil Bozhkov alleged that he had been forced by PM Borissov and Finance Minister Goranov to pay them 20% of his business proceeds, that he had tried to sell half of his lottery business to a Czech company for 1 billion BGN but the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister tried to make him transfer a majority interest in it to a person named by them, and that they had attacked his business when he declined to do what they said.

Bozhkov said he had formally alerted the Prosecutor’s office and the chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev confirmed that the alert had been assigned to a prosecutor for investigation. According to the alert, between 2017 and the end of 2019 Bozhkov paid 60 million BGN personally to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister as they demanded.

Regarding Bozhkov’s claims that Sevdelina Arnaoudova, head of the government press office, had visited his office every month in the past years, the PM responded that he never sent her there.

Arnaoudova herself responded that since she has been working for the government all her meetings with businessmen have been recorded and that her last meeting with Bozhkov was when he visited GERB's headquarters together with the head of bTV, Florian Skala.

"I've never sent anyone, I've never been there and I don't want to be part of this game," Borissov said. Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said that Bozhkov's allegations are manipulative and aim to discredit the government. "If he has evidence, he'd better present it and end this circus," Goranov said.