Comment by Emilia Milcheva:
Andrey Gyurov's caretaker government started without a single day of tolerance. In the first 24 hours, a scandal broke out around the Deputy Prime Minister for Fair Elections Stoil Tsitselkov and he resigned, which was immediately accepted. On the same day, the Minister of Justice Andrey Yankulov opened a front against the acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, who has been "temporarily" holding the post for nearly 3 years. He convened a plenary session of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on February 26 with a single point: determining a new acting Prosecutor General. of the Prosecutor General.
In the context of the infodemic due to the six dead residents of the former “Petrohan” hut, additional tension is also brought by the upcoming election of a new Secretary General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In all likelihood, heads of regional directorates will also be replaced, which has become a practice of caretaker governments - along with the appointment of new regional governors.
New tactics
From the very beginning of the 12th caretaker cabinet after 1989, a strong confrontation has emerged. The object of the attacks is the PP-DB, to which most members of the “Gyurov” government are affiliated. In this election campaign, the tactics are different - the attackers are not the systemic parties such as GERB and DPS (New Beginning), against whose model the December protests were.
Instead of getting their hands dirty, their leaders Boyko Borisov and Delyan Peevski stand on the sidelines, and political parties such as “There is such a people” (ITN) and “Vazrazhdane”, whose chances for the future parliament do not seem great - for now, have been used as blades. This allows Borisov/Peevski to distance themselves from the confrontation and appear “stable and reasonable”, without entering into a direct confrontation. Their role is to validate the accusations made by the small players, emphasizing their scandalousness and conflictuality. Thus, the image of the main parties is not damaged by skirmishes. “Here we are, we are the sensible alternative!”, they suggest.
With the swarm of conspiracies surrounding #Petrohangate, public attention is focused on the crises, and not on the main goals of the caretaker government: the organization and conduct of fair elections, legislative decisions in connection with the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), another extension of the 2025 budget.
This is a “distraction” tactic, allowing political opponents to set the agenda. If the caretaker government does not seize the initiative, the scandals will affect voter turnout. Her promotion will determine whether the influence of the bought and controlled vote will decrease, and therefore the influence of parties with “serf voters“.
The move with the Ministry of Interior
#Petrohangate has become a tool for maintaining the fire and collective hysteria, which increases the tension not only around the “Gyurov” cabinet, but also transfers it to the PP-DB because of some connections with the liberal community. An attempt to inflame passions in society (fears, doubts, clashes) is the information relayed through several media outlets that the acting Minister of Interior Emil Dechev was putting pressure on employees of the Ministry of Interior.
The publications, as well as a signal from the ITN to the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office, claim that the goal was for the Ministry of Interior's investigative team on the “Petrohan” case to resign. The accusation against Dechev is that he wants the case to be swept under the rug. The press center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued an official refutation of the allegations. The leader of the ITN Slavi Trifonov threatened in a post on Facebook that he would not stop informing and asking questions "until this case is resolved". The chairman of the parliamentary group Toshko Yordanov is even more active.
It will not be easy for the caretaker cabinet to organize elections while adhering to certain ethical standards in the conditions of a functioning parliament. The predictions that this election campaign will be particularly muddy seem to be coming true. The bodies near Petrohan and Okolchitsa, the suspicions of sexual abuse and interference by the services, and in general the cascade of nonsense, conspiracies and absurd hypotheses are increasing anxiety in society. But the main thing - they harden public attitudes and instill negativity towards liberal values such as non-governmental organizations, for example.
A signal to the protest community
The battle for the rule of law passes through the office of the Prosecutor General and is emblematic of the protests, which have always insisted on limiting the uncontrolled prosecution. By raising the topic, Justice Minister Andrey Yankulov shows that he will not be a passive administrator. And not only that.
After the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Tsitselkov, the initiative must return. Opening a front against the acting Prosecutor General shifts the focus from a defensive position to an offensive one. The topic of the prosecutor's office also mobilizes not only the hard core of the PP-DB, but also a wider circle of people. This is a signal to the thousands who came out to the protests that the caretaker government is not distancing itself from its stated principles.
Against the backdrop of these scandals, the former President Rumen Radev - a future participant in the elections on April 19 - is silent. It seems that he is avoiding detailed comments so as not to "burn" some bridges prematurely - and not to fall into a trap. When he does so, he uses messages in his familiar presidential style, which is limited to short statements.
For the skin of an expert
Prime Minister Gyurov has not announced whether he will have another deputy prime minister for fair elections to replace the resigned Stoil Tsitelkov. In all likelihood, he will not appoint another. The resignation of Tsitelkov, an expert on electoral issues and a member of the Public Council of the CEC, came after the ITN reported that he had been detained for driving with 1.5 per mille of alcohol and smoking marijuana. In addition, as an EU observer in the 2020 elections in Ghana, there was an incident in a hotel room, for which he was suspended from such participation for 5 years. The European Commission confirmed that he was suspended for 5 years from election observation, “due to non-compliance with the Code of Conduct applicable to all election observation missions”.
Tsitselkov's explanation is that he violated the restrictions imposed due to Covid-19, there was no indecent behavior and the punishment was not to work in the field, but he was not excluded from the list of EC experts. The probation imposed on him for drunk driving has expired and his record is clean. There are also no charges for a marijuana cigarette.
Election use scandals
This scandal will also be used for election use and will gain momentum this week. President Iliana Yotova expects Tsitselkov to resign from the Public Council, which is also being demanded by the Central Election Commission (CEC). On bTV, Tsitselkov said that he would not do it, as "there is no legal basis". I am rehabilitated and those lawyers who do not deal with elections should at least know that there is no reason, moral or otherwise, for me not to work with elections, he said.
In this storm of scandals, Andrey Gyurov's office must prove that it can hold the helm without sinking into the chaos that his opponents are trying to create. His first task is to impose his own agenda.