Surprisingly, or maybe not quite, in the second consecutive elections in the parliament a little-known party enters. This time it's a SWORD, short for “Morality, Unity, Honor”. The parallels with the surprise of the previous vote – “Majesty“ they are not few, but while the party around the Historical Park then had two leaders, only the leader of the formation Radostin Vassilev is recognizable from MECH. Since the age of 15, he has consistently presented himself in society as a fighter against the mafia.
Beginning as a sports lawyer
Vasilev is 39 years old, was born in Pleven and graduated in law at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski“. He is the founder of a law office bearing his name.
He appeared in the public space in 2008, when he was the main legal consultant of the football club CSKA. He was appointed to work at the club by Alexander Tomov at the end of his tenure. During Tomov's time at the helm, CSKA accumulated substantial debts and subsequently went bankrupt.
Before that, Vassilev worked at the headquarters of the "Bulgarian Social Democracy" party led by Tomov. He also took part in the formation's campaign for the local elections held in the fall of 2007.
In the years that followed, Vassilev was one of the biggest critics of Borislav Mihailov's management at the head of the Bulgarian Football Union. In 2018, he was part of the team of Lyuboslav Penev, who is one of the former goalkeeper's competitors for the presidency. After Borislav Mihailov's victory in 2021, Vassilev wrote on “Facebook”: “It is difficult to do something good in Bulgaria, and in football it is even more difficult. I am one of the first to say that the BFS is a mafia in 2009 and there were only a few of us then. Both in the state and in football, the scumbags want to crush you, to make you disappear, they make fun of you, they insult you.“
Vasilev is also a lawyer for the weightlifting federation after the huge doping scandal in 2015, when 11 of our weightlifters tested positive. Vassilev helped the huge fine of half a million dollars to be canceled and “saved“ the license of the home office. Instead of 4 years of punishment, our street weightlifters were banned from competing for only 9 months.
Leap into politics
In 2020, Vassilev became the founder of the PP “There is such a people” (ITN) with leader Slavi Trifonov. On July 11, 2021, the party won the parliamentary elections, after becoming the second political force in the country on April 4 of the same year. Radostin Vassilev has been nominated in three design offices – two unrealized on “There is such a people” and a coalition with the mandate "We continue the change", before heading the Ministry of Youth and on December 13, 2021, ITN is officially part of the governing coalition in the government of Kiril Petkov, and Radostin Vassilev was elected Minister of Sports. During the coalition negotiations, Vassilev insisted on a complete revision of the ministry and all the state-owned companies that have been subordinate to him for a decade.
During his administration, Vassilev came into conflict with the Bulgarian Football Union and even threatened the headquarters with license revocation due to the lack of official budget, report and program documents.
Infrastructure was among the main topics for Vassilev. He changed the management of the National Sports Base, gave the “green light” for the reconstruction of the "Bulgarian Army" stadium and repeatedly declared his intention to restore the "Red Flag" sports complex.
However, he has been criticized for appointing his relatives to key positions in state-owned companies.
On June 13, 2022, Vassilev announced his resignation from ITN on the grounds that behind the party leader Slavi Trifonov there are behind-the-scenes interests, and the future of Bulgaria is more important than loyalty to the party. Together with him, ITN and the parliamentary group leave five more deputies. Their decision comes after the withdrawal of ITN from the ruling coalition, which, according to Vassilev, was not previously agreed with the deputies.
During the briefing, Vassilev says that the chairman of the parliamentary group of the political force, Toshko Yordanov, told him: "Dude, Dalgia said not to hang Staliyski", regarding the actions of the sports ministry in relation to an establishment rented by &ldquo ;National sports base“, located next to the swimming pool in the capital district “Dianabad“. The tenant of the complex is indirectly connected with the businessman Alexander Staliyski.
Although the six MPs who broke away from ITN, including Vassilev, support the government in the vote of no confidence on June 22, 2022, the vote is successful and the cabinet with Prime Minister Kiril Petkov falls.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the ITN parliamentary group, Toshko Yordanov, released at a press conference a recording of a telephone conversation in which a man, whom he claims is Radostin Vasilev, convinced ITN MP Hristinka Ivanova to join the separatists. However, she gave up at the last moment.
A case has been filed against Vassilev, and he is being sued for trying to put pressure on Hristinka Ivanova. She told the court that Vassilev had a plan for 15 people to secede from ITN and that there was a bright future for them.
„Strong Bulgaria”
In August 2022, Vassilev announced a new political project "Strong Bulgaria". The stated goals of the project are direct participation of citizens in the state government and local self-government, civil control for transparency in the work of the institutions and termination of criminal practices in the administration.
At the same time, Vassilev was announced as the leader of the list of “We continue the change” in Gabrovo for the parliamentary elections in October 2022.
„We continue the change“
On April 12, 2023, Vassilev became a People's Representative from the PP-DB coalition. After a scandalous recording, which he distributed and claimed to be from the national council of “We continue the change”, on May 26, 2023, Vassilev decided to leave the parliamentary group.
However, he remains in the National Assembly as an independent deputy.
SWORD
In October 2023, he founded the party “MECH“ (abbreviated from Moral, Unity, Honor) in Hall 3 of the National Palace of Culture (NDK), about 600 people gather at the establishment.
The party participates in Parliamentary elections in Bulgaria (2024) and Elections for the European Parliament in Bulgaria (2024).
In the elections for the 50th National Assembly on June 9, MECH achieved a result of 2.98%.
In the successful campaign for the 51st Parliament, the party's motto is “SWORD or the Mafia”. The fight against the mafia is a slogan that has always accompanied Vassilev in his career up to this point.