“This government is an active accomplice in the capture of institutions by illegitimate interests - by Peevski in the first place, but not only.” This was stated in an interview for the morning block of bTV by the co-chair of "Yes, Bulgaria" and co-chair of the PP-DB parliamentary group Bozhidar Bozhanov. He added that the coalition expects support from all opposition parties for the vote of no confidence in the cabinet for the captured institutions, which it will submit in September.
“When we participated in the negotiations for a government at the end of last year, the measures against the capture of the state were removed from the coalition agreement. This government was created, denying the need to eliminate the instruments of the conquered state. The crisis with the water shortage, the inability of the authorities to control, this whole collapse is a consequence of the fact that the institutions work in an illegitimate way, and not for the benefit of the people by whom they were elected,” said Bozanov.
According to the co-chairman of “Yes, Bulgaria” problems like the one with the water crisis require long-term solutions, not belated actions “on the spur of the moment”. He recalled that a working group on dams was formed under the “Kiril Petkov” cabinet, but then even Deputy Prime Minister Cornelia Ninova did not receive the report of the Court of Auditors on the legacy of the dams under the “Boyko Borisov-3” government, and he has not yet received the report he requested from Dimitar Glavchev, in order to see the specific violations. A few years ago, however, the report was leaked to the investigative website “Bird” and it became clear that the companies that drained 500 million leva from the dams were linked to Ivan Mirinski and Delyan Peevski.
Bozhanov expressed his reservations about the extent to which this complex crisis with water scarcity can be resolved solely by “Bulgarian Water and Sanitation Holding”, no matter who is in its management. Asked about the participation of representatives of “Continue the Change” in the management of the Water and Sanitation Holding, and in particular Lozko Lozev, who is the chairman of the Management Board of the state-owned company and a former MP from the PP, Bozhanov replied that he did not know Lozev, but unfortunately, the PP, due to its rapid growth in the beginning, attracted professionals who later changed their loyalties. “There were cases with ministers, with municipal councilors, who then switched to GERB. These are mistakes of growth, as some define them. I don't know what the case is with the Water Supply and Sewerage Holding, but if they were more opposition-minded, these people would have been replaced, as happened in other places”, said the co-chairman of “Yes, Bulgaria”.
The increase in the capital of the Bulgarian Development Bank by 4.5 billion leva, according to Bozanov, seems opaque and will probably lead to a repeat of the period 2017-2021, when the BDB distributed money to companies close to Peevski. “Our assumption based on this experience is that the same thing will happen. The loans that have already been taken are transferred for redistribution through the BDB. This will be explained by investment projects, municipal projects. But if we go back, they go to specific companies that do not finish their work, for example, cheap pipes are used that burst, there were cases of water losses of 70% immediately after the repair with new pipes”, said Bojanov.
The people's representative drew a parallel between the career development of Miroslav Rashkov, proposed by the government as the Secretary General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Kalin Stoyanov, who was the Minister of Internal Affairs and now Peevski's MP. According to Bojanov, there have always been professionals in the Ministry of Internal Affairs who normally climb the career ladder, but the problem there is always the implicit connections and dependencies, where Peevski is strongest. In many cases, he has some compromising information or data about the wrongdoing of a professional and when he needs it, they are brought out. “Rashkov meets with Svetlozar Lazarov, who was the Secretary General in the Oresharski cabinet, then he was the coordinator of “Attack” - in a period when “Ataka” was a tool for Peevski's appointments in the executive branch - heads of agencies, deputy ministers, in one way or another turned out to be connected to Peevski. According to our information, Rashkov meets relatively regularly with Lazarov in a restaurant in “Dragalevtsi”, which begins with P, where they exchange information, experience and tasks, perhaps”, said Bozhidar Bozhanov.
In the words of the co-chair of “Yes, Bulgaria”, however, the bigger problem with Peevski's dependencies is the next level - the prosecutor's office: “Criminal justice does not work to punish criminals, but works to turn criminals into convenient instruments of influence afterwards. Because when you have a pending case against someone, one compromising piece of evidence, one SRC, this person can grow in his career, including thanks to political help, and when the right moment comes, tell him: you will now fulfill this or you will not fulfill that, you will put an umbrella over this or you will not put an umbrella over that, because otherwise it will get bad. The prosecutor's office rarely files charges. This is how the state is taken over, power is exercised democratically.”