Four days before the presidential elections, Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced that Borisov and Peevski are losing control over the financial flows in the country. While the leaders of GERB and DPS hope to have a say in the run-off, the Prime Minister is attacking their influence where it has the greatest value - in local government and public procurement.
His statement comes against the backdrop of the ruling majority's failed hearing in parliament for the second time on the case of pardoned drug trafficker Ognyan Atanasov (“Petrichki Escobar”). Is this an attempt to pump up votes for presidential candidate Iliyana Yotova, supported by “Progressive Bulgaria”, or has the campaign for the local elections, which are due in a year, also begun? The two are intertwined. It is undoubtedly a political message to voters, to party headquarters and to people in local government, regardless of the outcome of the individual investigations.
Accusations against the opposition
Radev is trying to package the opposition against himself, by also bringing up the accusation of yet another “assembly” - an expression left over from the PP-DB and GERB government, also supported by the MRF. Even before the protest on October 20 in the “triangle of power”, organized against the cabinet's foreign policy, the prime minister accused his political opponents of wanting to return Borisov and Peevski to power and drag Bulgaria into the war.
The next day, he repeated the suggestion that the two were looking for new partners for negotiations. Thus, Radev is trying to present the protest against the cabinet's deference to Russia and the lack of reliable security protection in the Black Sea as an attempt to rearrange power. However, there is another interesting point in the prime minister's statement. He says that so far the efforts of the Ministry of Interior and the National Security Agency have failed in the prosecutor's office, but after the action in Sungurlare, this is starting to change thanks to prosecutors at the district level. With these words, Radev is not just admitting where the investigations have sunk. In fact, he is stating that he is already counting on prosecutors ready to move them forward. And this also raises the question of whether this is about restoring legality, or just a change in the balance of influence on the prosecution.
The actions
Radev attacks both Borisov and Peevski, but so far the actions of the Ministry of Interior have mainly affected local administrators associated with the MRF. “Their (Borisov and Peevski's, b.a.) lieutenants no longer determine public procurement in the state, and the substitutes will find it increasingly difficult to conceal the loot”, said the Prime Minister.
The Directorate of the State Anti-Corruption Bureau and the National Anti-Corruption Agency entered Belitsa municipality today, governed for the third term by Radoslav Revanski - deputy chairman of the MRF and one of Peevski's closest people. Searches and seizures of documents took place both in the municipality and in the mayor's home. According to NOVA, the investigation is related to public procurement, projects of the “Road Infrastructure” Agency and European funding. The parliamentary group of the MRF mobilized in support of Revanski, and deputies headed to Belitsa.
The protection of Revanski turned into a party mobilization even before the investigation reached court. For the MRF, the attack on one of its most influential mayors is not just a legal issue - it also affects Peevski's ability to hold on to local government.
A similar demonstration of party solidarity took place on May 28, when the mayor of Kardzhali and also deputy chairman of the MRF, Erol Mumun, was taken for questioning in an investigation into a public procurement contract worth over 5 million leva. At that time, Peevski personally arrived in Kardzhali, accompanied by deputies. Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev reported on data on influence in the selection of a contractor and on paid but not performed activities. Peevski described the police's actions as arbitrariness and an attempt to intimidate the mayors and voters of the MRF.
The tension did not subside between these two actions. On October 15, the police in the Kardzhali region were activated due to vote trading in view of the upcoming vote. 352 people were checked, three were detained. Erol Mumun accused the police of violence against citizens, and the MRF demanded the resignation of the regional director of the Ministry of Interior.
A day before the action in Belitsa, the State Anti-Corruption Bureau and the National Security Service also entered the municipality of Sungurlare, governed by Dimitar Gavazov, also associated with the MRF. Documents were seized from an investigation into alleged violations in public procurement and diversion of funds from the municipal budget. According to information from bTV, the mayor was detained. This series is joined by the resignation of the mayor of Gorna Oryahovitsa, Nikolay Rashkov, who in May 2025 publicly joined Peevski's initiative "A New Beginning for the Development of the Regions". His resignation comes after a conflict of interest proceeding, not a police operation.
Peevski sends deputies to defend his mayors, Radev sends the services to check their public procurements. But the real question is not who will prevail in this clash, but when will municipal budgets finally stop feeding party coffers.
A stake bigger than the runoff
The leader of the MRF accused Radev of personally ordering the police operations in Belitsa and Sungurlare, and pointed to the prime minister and his chief of staff Nikolay Koprinkov as the “top of the oligarchy“. Borisov preferred to distance himself from Peevski, saying that he had not spoken to him for months. GERB also denied that it was behind the protest against the cabinet, but announced that the party would no longer participate in "assembly" parties in which it is not the leading political force.
Neither GERB nor DPS nominated their presidential candidate pairs. Peevski announced that he would not support anyone in the first round and would decide on the runoff later, while Borisov identified Yotova as his ideological opponent, but refused to give unsolicited support to Gyurov. But both will be forced to take a position on the runoff. Because the votes of GERB and DPS voters can decide who will be the seventh president of Bulgaria. And this makes next week a test not only of Borisov and Peevski's ability to negotiate political support, but also of their influence on their own voters.
After the police actions against the MRF mayors and Radev's request for a breakthrough in the prosecutor's office, Peevski will have to show whether his power is enough to protect the local structures - the party relies on them. Police actions can unsettle his electorate, but also mobilize. For Gyurov, public support from Peevski may prove politically more expensive than the votes it would bring him - if he pushes away voters for whom opposing the MRF leader's influence is a matter of principle.
For Boyko Borisov, the risk is different - trying to trade influence, which may turn out to be less than he thinks, because GERB voters are not inclined to follow his instructions on who to vote for. Sociological polls show that even if no one asks Borisov, at least a third of GERB's electorate is ready to support the Gyurov-Kandev pair.
The question of the political price
Radev presents Borisov and Peevski as a common political opponent, but the two do not act as a united camp. Peevski responds with open confrontation, and Borisov tries to stay out of it. The GERB leader has already refused to nominate candidates for the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), but this does not exclude participation in negotiating a majority for his election. And the election of the next prosecutor general also depends on the composition of the new SJC.
Therefore, the stakes of the presidential elections are not limited to who will enter “Dondukov“ 2 - the answer will be known on November 1. Before the runoff, Borisov and Peevski will have to show whether they can still direct the votes of their voters. And after it, it will become clear what political price they can ask for this - and who is willing to pay it.