An unusual place to establish a party structure in Svishtov was chosen by the coordinators of “Progressive Bulgaria“ in the Veliko Tarnovo region. The fight against the oligarchy in the municipality for the local people of Rumen Radev began from the hotel and restaurant complex “Folkloren Izvor“ in the mayoral village of Tsarevets.
Its ownership is nominally by an association bearing an identical name. It is formally chaired by lawyer Tsvetelina Stancheva Dimitrova - the permanent chairwoman of the Municipal Election Commission, having been nominated as such over the years by the quotas of the BSP and subsequently of GERB. Behind the facade of the association, however, clearly stands the figure of the local mayor Gencho Genchev, who, according to Svishtov supporters, is also its actual ultimate owner.
The composition of the party core also suggests that it is a matter of creating a political proxy for the local government - the new organization is made up entirely of municipal employees who occupy positions dependent on the mayor. The chairwoman, Temenuzhka Todorova, is a person without any political appearances or experience, working at the municipal Center for Children with Disabilities. The organizational secretary, Petya Dimitrova, also holds an expert position there and is popular as a GERB activist until recently.
Economically and politically, Svishtov is entirely controlled by Mayor Genchev, who has an interesting political biography. He initially won the position as a BSP candidate in 2015, but quickly became a confidant of the former second in GERB Tsvetan Tsvetanov and as such supported both Tsetska Tsacheva and Rumen Radev in the 2016 presidential elections. He was nominated by an initiative committee with the support of the BSP, GERB and MRF to win his second term in 2019, before currently becoming a party candidate of GERB during its last successful elections in 2023.
In the public sphere, his name is associated with video-documented visits to gambling establishments, which was reflected in an investigative program on TV “Eurocom“ and as a victim of blackmail related to erotic massages by a Sofia gay man, for which criminal proceedings were subsequently initiated by the prosecutor's office and the court.