Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev marked his third month in custody with a letter published on his Facebook profile.
The mayor was detained on July 8 after an action by the Anti-Corruption Commission, at the behest of businesswoman Plamenka Dimitrova, who accused him of corruption after her company lost a public procurement contract.
Kotsev says that the first "well-intentioned warnings and frank threats" were made against him since he took office.
Here is the full text of the letter:
"I mark the third month in custody with a retrospective look at the time spent in the Municipality, which, if the prosecution takes advantage of the maximum term of detention, will be more or less half of my current mandate.
A mandate spent in a permanent battle with Plamenki - monopolists of public resources, subscribed to the poverty of the people, sorry, for public procurement; Trayanovtsi - construction entrepreneurs who move entire boulevards to compact their terrain with more concrete, and Ivelinovtsi - other construction entrepreneurs for whom the ravines on the Kamenarski slope are just ordinary undeveloped areas.
A mandate spent in a permanent battle with GERB-Portnikh and its clique of new leaders, for whom lining up public procurement contracts with one participant is a higher political school, and issuing PUP and RS to builders is the apogee of managerial potency. Otherwise Varna would be a Byzantine city, that is, vengeful and conspiratorial, as MP Balachev describes it.
A mandate, just like the story with the garbage in Sofia. There is #WHO to clean up after all the competition has been eliminated, but for 400 leva per ton. What if it is 4 times above the market price, right? Work, work, work will be done? And the mayor who does not succumb to the blackmail and greed of those who have grown close to the Borissov-Peev regime, in fact, does not become one. “Impossible“.
Or as Judge Dani Kanazireva from GERB once said: “Don't touch organized crime! There will be chaos!“
Which she turned out to be right. Chaos ensued. An illegal prosecutor general, open war in the judicial system, floods, victims, garbage and still concrete. And if by chance the concrete is not enough, then the CPC will helpfully listen to the complaints of the dissatisfied in order to press charges.
Two years ago, at this time, the election campaign was underway. Neither then nor now do I harbor any illusions that being mayor of Varna is easy. But it is important to say that the first well-intentioned warnings and outright threats came as soon as I took office. The curtains began to quickly lift to reveal the deep decor of addictions, corruption and unclean interests. And this is because for decades a system has been built that does not tolerate people who refuse to obey the established vicious order. If you are not part of it, the system throws you out.
For example, why does no one investigate how Plamenka won every public contract for 16 years in a row? Let everyone draw their own conclusions.
There are plenty of “System players“ and “Plamenkas“ close to the former mayor of Varna. The CCP not only listens to them willingly, but also helps them put together a convenient puzzle for the prosecution. Each of these witnesses is closely connected to the previous leadership, through which they benefited. Unknown to me entrepreneurs, dismissed officials, people accused of corruption and fraud. Their motives are written on their foreheads, as the CCP inspectors themselves like to say. But instead of the prosecutor's office investigating the truth, it expects me to prove my innocence, turning the foundations of law upside down.
Today, the “Byzantines”, who have taken over Varna, are wondering how to remove one mayor in order to install another – convenient and dependent on them. They want new elections, a bought vote and a coup against the citizens through the institutions they have taken over. And if possible, don't make a fuss and don't let people rebel too much.
It's sad to watch them underestimate the people of Varna again with their boundless arrogance, but arrogance has drunk the minds of more than one or two Bulgarian politicians.
Which cannot be said for the thousands of Bulgarians in the squares in Varna, Sofia and all of Bulgaria, who want to live in a normal and free country. You give me the strength to resist! In my cell I hold a poster with thousands of raised hearts in front of the parliament with the inscription “Unity makes strength“.
I know that we are together in this battle. For that I will be eternally grateful to you. Thank you!
Be united. Fight for your freedom, and I will fight for mine!"