In the municipality of Dospat, political and economic repression is being carried out by mayor Elin Radev against certain people, said at a press conference at the National Press Club of BTA in Smolyan Vladimir Deliev, municipal councilor in Dospat, reported the agency of the same name.
According to him, the people of the Dospat municipality are the victims of a "feudal", a multi-mandate mayor who, with his actions and inactions, oppresses the entire population. They feel powerless before the power they give him to exercise over them, Deliev pointed out. Dozens of residents of Dospat municipality gathered at the press conference to present documents and their cases as examples of repression against political or business opponents of the mayor.
Orders obtained to remove structures alleged to be illegal, issuance of regularization orders to “criminal“ according to the protesting residents of Dospat, detailed development plans were presented at the press conference. There is a double arshin in Dospat municipality, there the law is used against people to show other people how they should keep quiet, said Vladimir Deliev.
The press conference is a continuation of the events of this week, in which the mayor Elin Radev appeared in person during an ordered action to demolish a building in a property in the village of Lyubcha. Tefik Ilyazov, one of the heirs of this property, stated that the problems with the mayor of Dospat began after he registered in 2021 as an advocate of a party other than Radev's.
The majority of the participants in the press conference also explained that the mayor's criminal sanctions against them started after their participation in initiative committees or parties that are Radev's opponents. These problems have been going on for several years and they are because we dared to express a different opinion from that of the mayor, Vladimir Deliev pointed out. At the press conference, he presented documents from a series of orders canceled by the court of the mayor, who tried to order the removal of a legally placed metal pavilion on Deliev's own property in Barutin.
The municipal councilor added that the repressions began after the establishment of the “Union for the Future of Dospat Municipality”, which opposed the mayor's request to take on a new long-term debt. Sanction orders and acts continued even after the election of municipal councilors from opposing political parties in the last elections, since in the previous term Elin Radev governed the municipality with a Municipal Council composed only of GERB councillors. Residents of Dospat appeal to the leadership of GERB to remove the political trust from Elin Radev.
According to participants in the press conference, Elin Radev has an “umbrella” from various institutions, which leave unanswered the numerous letters and signals from victims of such repressive measures.
From now on, we will not stop, we will not give up, we are ready to proceed even to more large-scale actions, indicated Aleksandar Vasilev, municipal councilor. He specified that people are ready to seek political asylum outside the country if all this continues. We are fighting to keep the houses that were bequeathed to us by our grandmothers, grandfathers, fathers, Vassilev said.