Tsvetan Tsvetanov in front of FACTS: Now Alexey Petrov is gone and it is interesting who will be the one who will make t

Will we have a cabinet, why did GERB drop to 530,000 votes, how is Dimitar Glavchev doing as prime minister… Tsvetan Tsvetanov, leader of “Republicans for Bulgaria” spoke to FAKTI.

- Mr. Tsvetanov, GERB won first place with 530,602 votes. A year earlier, in the April 2, 2023 election and before the “assembly”, they had 669,924 votes. This means minus 139,322 votes. Why?
- GERB is in a situation where after every parliamentary election it reduces its electoral results. There is also a partial recovery, but in very small parameters. If we look at 2017, when we had parliamentary elections, and then we went into a series, GERB always then and before had a result of more than 1.14 million votes. What is currently happening is the lowest result that GERB has achieved in parliamentary elections since the party was created.

- And GERB loses because…
- I attribute it more to the loss in the local vote, because GERB lost the key regional centers.

- And the mayors are no longer helping. So I understand…
- Mayors no longer provide this additional energy through local administration structures. We know the influence that each mayor has in each settlement. I give an example. The result of GERB in Sofia falls from the previous parliamentary elections by 41,209 votes in the three multi-party constituencies. In Varna they fell by 15,738 votes, in Shumen they fell by about 6,000 votes. These are not “stimulating“ good results to be had. So the loss they got came mostly from the big regional centers. And here it is right to say that - in truth, the smaller municipalities did their job, but they are not enough to make a result of 800,000-900,000 votes.

- Elections in the fall, how possible?
- Rather, I think that there will be a cabinet because we have a low voter turnout, and this leads to fear in those parliamentaryly represented forces that enter the parliament, because they are not sure what they will get in the next vote. Their fear is greater about going to early parliamentary elections and therefore they will prefer to have a cabinet. It is also very important how the parties will position themselves with their political declarations in the 50th National Assembly during the swearing-in. After that, the relevant conclusions can already be drawn, but GERB are currently in a very complicated situation, even though they are winners. We know that during the time when they were winning after 2021, they were not able to realize a hand-held exploratory mandate as the first political force and therefore purely psychological

GERB will insist and make all possible maneuvers to have a mandate implemented by them.

Will the service cabinet grow into a regular one with some small cosmetic changes in the composition, or will we have a wider fan that will include people in the cabinet who will act as “experts” and not be so politically burdened… We heard BSP representatives say that they would participate in a broad cabinet. This, on the other hand, means that perhaps a weak opposition will emerge in the parliament, and everyone will want to get their hands on power, because that way everyone will want to generate some dividends, but not bear political responsibility.

If GERB forms a minority government, it will be a big risk

and I think it will provoke a lot of street energy that they don't need.

- Boris Prime Minister for the fourth time. Do you see it?
- I don't think that such an option will be taken. If the requests that were given during the election campaign by GERB for over 800,000 votes, because that was the expectation, that was what the voters were told during the campaign, had happened, then Borisov could have been nominated for prime minister. But now, at the moment, with this variety of different political entities in the parliament, I don't think he will take that risk. GERB has already said that Borisov will not be prime minister, but will have a negotiating team. In this way, the political responsibility of any political force will most likely be concealed behind something expert, something programmatic. I suspect that this is exactly what political scientists and analysts will begin to enforce in the next few weeks.

- Did Hristo Ivanov's resignation close the door of GERB and DPS for PP-DB talks?
- Hristo Ivanov made a worthy political act after this collapse that PP-DB suffered. Because with them it is most tangible that they fall – 313,000 votes less than the previous election. In fact, they are down 50% from their previous result of over 600,000 votes. At the moment, it is very important what will be the perspective and horizon of the PP-DB - will they perceive themselves in the role of opposition, or will they simply swallow all these insults and all that has been circulated in the public space in the last few months in order to to maintain some positions that would bring them some financial, but not political, dividends.

- The fact that Hristo Ivanov is leaving active politics, how will it affect the PP and DB coalition. How long would PP last without DB?
- Touring our structures in places before the elections, because you know that “Republicans for Bulgaria“ we did not participate in the elections, I had the opportunity to observe certain processes and talk to our supporters. In fact, PP and DB were actually competitors in certain places, and they were not together, they did not put all their energy into attracting the periphery.

There was an internal conflict between them.

I thought that the co-chairman of the PP - in the person of Asen Vassilev, would be much more open to the representatives of the DB in Haskovo, and there a tension was created between the structures. And this is evident – they suffered a severe drop of around 10,000 votes. In the last elections, PP and DB had 16,000 votes in Haskovo, and now they have 5,000 votes. It shows that there is no consolidation and no leadership that can unite – on the contrary, the processes led to cleavage. Now there are important elections for municipal councilors in Haskovo - on June 23, and DSB (part of DB) is not together with PP. PP raised a list of 14 candidates for municipal councilors, and DSB entered the formation of "Voice of the People". There is a conflict between PP and DB. And the question now is whether reason will prevail, that only united have a future and will be able to continue to exist, or,

if a total split occurs, this could mean that they could be maneuvered in the parliament as well.

To be “courted” part of the people's representatives, who are from PP and DB, to support a broad expert, programmatic or whatever they will call it government, which, I suppose, will appear as an option and for it all support for a parliamentary majority will be sought.< br />
- We've heard reports of undocumented cash… from the archive of Alexey Petrov. At least that's what it says. Who keeps the archive? And in general, when these records appeared, what impression did they make on you?
- In time, those people who knew Alexey Petrov know that he always handled certain records in order to keep dependent those who should be convenient for him. From that point of view, I think the archive, in all likelihood, and what they've been able to cleverly do is use it to discredit PP and DB in this campaign. From the statements of certain political informants, we can guess who can hold this archive and use it skillfully to discredit a political opponent. Alexey Petrov was the key factor in the creation of the “assembly” and this is clear from these conversations that have taken place in the last two years.

I think there are other interesting records that can shed light on the behind-the-scenes goings-on in recent years.

When I was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs and we made the realization against Alexey Petrov, the victims and the witnesses against him – even at the initial stage, it turned out that he actually managed to manipulate and make them dependent. The same has happened to quite a few of the people who ruled us until recently in a nine-month period. Everyone says that he was the basis of the assembly. Now Alexey Petrov is gone and it is interesting who will be the one who will make the future “assembly”. The only thing we can draw as a conclusion is that nothing will be transparent, it will be mostly behind the scenes, things will be decided somewhere else, but not in a plenary hall, not in public, not in front of the media, but will be in a controlled environment. Such as will be convenient for those who want to rule.

- We have two significant murders - of Alexey Petrov and Martin Bojanov – The notary. Why today they are not talked about at all, not commented on. Is this an uncomfortable topic, or is this not the time?
- You very clearly saw that a commission was created in the parliament, and that's when the sabotage of the work of the National Assembly with the quorums that had to be formed began, and then we entered into a political crisis. After that, the “assembly“ and inability to complete the rotation. It was a clear message from leading political players that this topic is not of interest to those who want to rule the country. And this is because the truth, when it comes out, will be quite unflattering for many institutions that have failed to do their job, but have allowed such influence to certain circles in the country's governance. This, respectively, means that the country is in an uncertainty and behind the scenes, which I think the public still cannot realize what is happening. We can only ascertain this with the low voter turnout and distrust in the political parties that are in this position today.

- You know Dimitar Glavchev. How do you view him in his role as Prime Minister…
? - This definitely does not fit his character, his profile.

- But it came to such a situation that there was no one after these changes in the Constitution and the circle came down to him…
- That is true, but let's remember what the preparation for the changes in the Constitution was like. The same National Assembly elected Glavchev as chairman of the Audit Chamber. Could this be a well-directed scenario, because the other options, including Rosen Zhelyazkov, were impossible. Zhelyazkov is already a serious politically active figure in GERB, the vice-chairmen of the Audit Chamber distanced themselves from such an opportunity because they said they were not the most prepared. We know what happened to the ombudsman and his deputy, the BNB dropped out and in the end Dimitar Glavchev remained. So

I do not exclude the possibility that all this was prepared a few months before with this election that was made by the parliament with Dimitar Glavchev, and then with the constitutional changes that reduced the election of the president to Glavchev.

Radev simply had no other possible option than those proposed with the constitutional changes.

- But how is Glavchev doing?
- Glavchev is not coping. It is also indicative of his self-confidence to seize the competence and functions of a foreign minister. And then we saw this situation, in which Bulgaria would have an extremely negative image, it would be quite compromised internationally.

- You mean the “revised“ position for “Srebrenica“ at the UN that didn't happen…
- Bulgaria is a co-author of this position in the UN and Glavchev as foreign minister, as prime minister should have become much better acquainted with the whole process and know that during all these months and years Bulgaria was quite active and received international recognition of its cooperativeness and the achievement of this consensus.

Glavchev simply does not manage the processes in the state with his will and declaration of will, but there are other factors that influence these positions.

So, if we are looking at the option of growing the caretaker cabinet into a regular cabinet, then the Prime Minister will be replaced, and a large number of ministers will be replaced. Other “experts” will be brought in to be able to close the topic of the “cabinet”, but in reality it will be managed by one or another political formation.