"The first orders to stop illegal construction in the Baba Alino area were issued by the Varna Municipality on September 1, 2025. This in no way affects the foreign investor. On the contrary, illegal activities there are only growing", Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev said on Facebook.
"Apparently someone was very scared that I and my team would bring the procedure to stop the construction to the end. And he has decided to simultaneously return to Bulgaria an expelled person who threatens national security, organize the arrest of the obstructing mayor, and thus actively assist in the scheme to launder an outrageous amount of money", Kotsev believes.
"How, moreover, can Bulgarian society answer the following questions: Which construction investor would risk his business by illegally building an entire city? Which construction investor continues to build, and even faster, after the control body has unequivocally shown him that it considers his construction illegal? Which construction investor comes from another country, is thrown out of it, and then returns to continue his illegal actions? Who, if not someone at the highest levels of power, has the influence to patronize all this?", asked the mayor of Varna.
"Baba Alino" is a monstrous crime that rightly shook the entire country. I think the truth is so striking that it will never be told in full and to the end. However, nothing can stop people from asking questions. Yesterday, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry demolished the illegal fence in the "Forest Club". Few knew until now, but of the 104 sites discovered there, nearly 50 are on the first and second slabs and are located behind this fence. The illegal city could have been twice as big. But in the end it was stopped. And to the question "why now", everyone can now answer. Because in the country with a capital "G", the Apaches are protected, and the guards set them on fire and end up in custody." concluded Kotsev.
Back in 2015, the first attempt was made to approve construction on the same territory, which the then mayor of Varna Ivan Portnih claims to have stopped through intervention in the Municipal Council. However, in the following years, numerous sites began to appear in the area, legitimized by so-called "tolerance certificates".
In 2023, after internal reshuffles in the "Management of Construction Control and Organization of Permit Regimes" (USKOR) Directorate, vicious practices in the issuance of such certificates were established. And in 2025, the Municipality of Varna issued the first official orders to stop illegal construction in the Baba Alino area.
Despite these administrative acts, the process not only did not stop, but accelerated, accompanied by signals of illegal logging of a centuries-old forest, which had grown into the construction of large-scale infrastructure - transformer stations and water supply networks.
Meanwhile, the current mayor of Varna, Blagomir Kotsev, was detained on charges of corruption, bribery and coercion, and without clear reason the case was transferred to the Sofia City Court. After numerous refusals to change his detention and appeals, the case was returned to Varna, after which Kotsev was released on bail.
At the end of May this year, in the midst of the "Baba Alino" scandal, an arson attempt was made against Kotsev's family restaurant in the Sea Garden in Varna.
Source: vesti.bg