Bulgaria’s former PM Petkov quits as WCC co-leader and MP over Sofia controversy
Bulgarian former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov announced on June 25 that he was resigning as co-leader of the We Continue the Change (WCC) party and as a member of Parliament.
This was the latest development in a current saga that began with the resignations from WCC of Ivailo Kukurin, mayor of Sofia’s Mladost borough, and Georgi Todorov, mayor of the Lyulin borough, with the two alleging that they had been pressured to manipulate public procurement procedures to benefit the party.
On June 24, Sofia deputy mayor Nikola Barbutov was taken in custody in connection with alleged corruption, and on June 25, several Bulgarian-language media were sent an illicit recording – the authenticity of which has not been confirmed – purportedly in conversation with Todorov about a scheme involving public procurement.
Two municipal officials were taken into custody along with Barbutov, who on June 25 was reported to have resigned as the capital city’s deputy mayor.
The contoversy has led Democratic Bulgaria – WCC’s partners in the coalition that holds the second-largest share of seats in the National Assembly – to call on WCC to review its policies on choices of personnel.
Petkov told a news conference on the afternoon of June 25: “I want to take personal political responsibility in connection with the nominations of these people and I am resigning as co-chair of We Continue the Change. I am resigning because I want to say that the cause of the WCC is bigger than any of us”.
Petkov, a former caretaker government minister who was Prime Minister in a short-lived quadripartite government in 2021-22, said that in four years in politics he had not taken “a single stotinka” outside of his salary.
“Today I am resigning, not because I have been implicated in corruption, but because there is corruption at the level of the district mayor of Sofia,” Petkov said, calling on GERB-UDF leader Boiko Borissov to do the same.
While WCC-DB is in opposition to a GERB-UDF-led government at national level, the two political forces also are constantly at odds at Sofia municipal level.
Petkov told the news conference: “”I want to apologize to our voters for making this personnel mistake. I want to say that in these four years I have never betrayed them – I have always worked with them in mind and what I believed was good for their well-being.
“Even our political enemies know that I was incorruptible and honest with public finances,” Petkov said, adding that the same can be said for Assen Vassilev, Nikolay Denkov, Lena Borislavova and all his colleagues in the executive council, as well as all the MPs.
Petkov promised that the party would conduct a full investigation into every name mentioned in the leaked recording.
He said that he remains a member of WCC, but will not be actively involved in politics.
Vassilev, like Petkov a former caretaker government minister, was Finance Minister in the Petkov government and for now remains sole leader of WCC.
(Archive photo: government.bg)
For exclusive subscriber-only access to The Sofia Globe’s analysis and commentary on events in Bulgaria, please sign up to our page on Patreon:
