Comment by Emilia Milcheva:
When GERB leader Boyko Borisov blocks the removal of Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev, he is hardly acting in this way because he is one of the apostles of the rule of law. This is a pragmatic move, wrapped in a supposed principle, which also has a certain PR effect.
“I do not want official victories”, Borisov said, after the previous day he ordered GERB representatives in the Municipal Election Commission (MEC) to vote “against” at the meeting that was supposed to decide whether to terminate his powers. The executive committee of GERB, on the other hand, dressed the leader's order in a party decision, which Kostadin Angelov explained as follows: "We do not want GERB and the name of the party and our leader to be included in some kind of political gimmicks that aim to change the majority choice of the people."
The move is profitable for GERB
Borisov's move is politically rational - it is more profitable for GERB for Blagomir Kotsev to remain in his post. The protests in his defense under the slogan "Freedom for political prisoners" do not stop, and one was organized on Sunday, when the MEC was in session. And the European political family of "We continue the change" (PP) - “Renew Europe”, demanded that the European Commission stop payments to Bulgaria, as the ruling party uses the anti-corruption commission as a weapon against its political opponents.
If the OIK had removed Kotsev, the reaction would have been a series of new protests and greater mobilization and consolidation of the PP-DB for possible partial mayoral elections in Varna. GERB would have strengthened their reputation as players who act behind the scenes and do not choose the methods and institutions to hit their political opponents. “We continue the change” will be in the role of “victims”. Boyko Borisov does not want this. The goal is for Kotsev to stew in his own cauldron, rather than to provide him with a way out through martyrdom.
What happened
In the end, the MEC, with 20 votes “for” and 7 “against”, did not consider the three signals for the removal from the mayoral post of Kotsev, who has been in custody for five months on charges of criminal conspiracy with four people “to commit bribery and coercion” in order to obtain property gain. According to one of the signals, the mayor, who is fulfilling his duties from custody, used an additional 10 days of leave. The MEC members will request a report from the municipal administration in Varna “for certified copies of orders from 17.11. 2025 and 19.11.2025, to the Mayor of Varna Municipality, regarding leave and/or replacement of Blagomir Kotsev”.
On November 17, Kotsev was transferred from the pre-trial detention center to the Sofia Prison and signed an order appointing his deputy Snezhana Apostolova to perform the functions of Mayor of Varna for that day. With another order on November 19, Kotsev assigned her to serve as mayor for a longer period - from November 19 to December 5 inclusive. This is also the day on which the Supreme Court of Cassation sent the case against him to the Varna District Court.
After the MEC receives the official information from the Varna Municipality about these dates, it will convene a new meeting. That is, for now Blagomir Kotsev remains mayor, and this week the Varna magistrates will decide whether to change his detention measure to a lighter one - house arrest, or to remain in custody.
The case may reach the Court of Justice of the European Union
There is no deadline for the MEC to schedule its next meeting after receiving the documents from the Varna municipality. However, whatever decision it makes - to remove Kotsev or to keep him in office, it can be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC). According to “Capital”, due to the specifics of the case, it may be necessary to “send a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the status and powers of an elected mayor”.
This means that the proceedings in Bulgaria will be suspended until the CJEU makes a ruling, which will take more than a year. For example, in response to the preliminary reference of the Supreme Administrative Court in the case of the Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank Andrey Gyurov, sent in September last year, the CJEU scheduled the hearing in nearly 14 months. In such a scenario, it could lead to the absurd situation that the next mayoral elections in 2027 will not have concluded the case against Kotsev.
The Game of the Players
Since November 11, the mayor of Varna has been performing his duties from detention. At that time, his unpaid eight-day leave expired, and before that he had been using paid leave, including from previous years. The prosecutor's office made a special effort to make it difficult for Kotsev to do his work from detention. After submitting the indictment in the case against him to the court, which changed the conditions of his detention, he was immediately transferred from the pre-trial detention center to the solitary confinement cell of the Central Sofia Prison. At the time, Kotsev's team announced that neither he nor his defense had been notified in advance of this action.
There is no doubt that the ultimate goal is to provoke early local elections in Varna, provided that a way is found to terminate Kotsev's powers. Formally, with his actions, Borisov is trying to show some distance from the brutality of the attack on the Varna mayor. Such tactics are very typical of his political ally Peevski.
The message of the GERB leader is: “I am for the law, the court must decide for Kotsev, and the party listens to me and implements it. GERB is winning the elections anyway”. Listening to Borisov, one might be mistaken that Varna is tied up in a towel in future mayoral elections. But that is not the case. By avoiding a decision by the MEC, Borisov also saves himself the risk of being accused of acting like Peevski, who went to war against mayors loyal to Dogan. One of them is the mayor of Mineralni Bani Myumyun Iskender, against whom four charges have been brought. At the end of October, the Haskovo District Court removed him from office, after the request of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office that he was obstructing the investigation. However, the Court of Appeal in Plovdiv reinstated him in office. Iskender is accused of participating in an organized crime group with the aim of embezzling EU funds, was under house arrest and then released after the 8-month investigation.
The victims are the citizens of Varna
Now Kotsev's opponents will probably try the tactic of making his work as mayor as difficult as possible, to show that he is not coping with his duties.
By deterring the GERB representatives, Borisov is also avoiding a confrontation with the PP-DB, who have focused on attacks against Peevski. However, the victims of these exhausting political games are the citizens of Varna, who endure the chaos while the behind-the-scenes moves of the parties decide the fate of the city without giving them a say.