Ivan Hristanov in front of the FACTS: Peevski is currently changing directors of state-owned enterprises in order to buy

Who will take what in DPS after the party splits in two. How will the discord in the BSP affect the party, because time is running out until the elections on October 27. What messages do we hear from the parties… Ivan Hristanov, leader of the "Edinenie" party, spoke to FAKTI.

- Mr. Hristanov, DPS is splitting, but the whole country is shaking whether the party will participate in the elections. How do you view this?
- I don't think that DPS is splitting. This is a highly exaggerated hypothesis. In fact, we are witnessing a war between two of transition's most hated pet peeves. People spoiled, with huge properties, with castles, with bottomless bank accounts, who want to arrange everything, make circles of companies.

- To distribute portions as we have heard…
- DPS has an electorate that is made up of Bulgarians, Turks, Pomacs, Roma, etc. To say that these people are going to separate is simply incorrect. Now we see how two sycophants of fate, two sycophants of State Security, two millionaires - not to say billionaires - are fighting over who will steal more. If I have to sum it up in one sentence, the party tools are now technically used in the quarrel between two rich people, and the bet is who will steal more.

- Who is stronger of the two – Delyan Peevski or Ahmed Dogan?
- Look, Delyan Peevski – in its being, received the exclusive mandate from its patron Ahmed Dogan to rule the state. And here we must say it very clearly - this opportunity was given to him, it was gifted to him.

Peevski never had the strength, abilities and intellect to conquer something on his own.

Yes, he was given to organize offices, court, prosecutor's office, agencies, directorates, state enterprises. All that I am telling you is happening right now. Right now, Delyan Peevski is changing directors of state-owned enterprises without anyone knowing, so that he can buy votes through this exclusive gift, take full advantage of it to steal.

- Who what electoral weight – between Peevski and Dogan, will there be a vote on October 27?
- In the last elections for DPS, 360,000 people voted. 100,000 of them were bought votes and 260,000 was the ethnic vote. The ethnic vote will continue to be loyal to Ahmed Dogan, even though Delyan Peevski is currently appointing people with Turkish names as heads of state-owned enterprises like crazy. He does this to buy the ethnic vote and works on his favorite scheme – put an influential person in a leadership position, and he will convince the electorate around him. This will be difficult.

- The battle between Dogan and Peevski is getting fiercer, and do you expect the loser – in its impotence, for example, to play with the so-called ethnic card?
- The battle in the DPS is being played with the ethnic card at the moment as well. I don't think it's coming because it's happening now. What we see. Inside - in one of the castles with luxury and opulence, one group of DPS has dug in, and outside is the other group. And the police, instead of doing their job, have sent countless policemen there to guard them. This is clearly a clash within the ethnic map. It may not have made the media front page yet, but this is how people of the same ethnicity are pitted against each other. This is extremely irresponsible. And here we can't help but ask ourselves how a scandal between two people led to the intervention of dozens, hundreds of police officers in a domestic dispute. Is it possible that these people will try to play with the electorate, is it possible to talk about civil war… And these two in their gluttony and greed to undermine the foundations of the Constitution and civil peace… That remains to be seen - whether they have brakes. But we do know one thing! When it comes to theft, to satisfy their ego, to control the state - they have no brakes. And another thing. Ahmed Dogan and Delyan Peevski have never been guardians of ethnic peace, because on the first occasion when these two quarreled, ethnic peace already became unimportant to them. They began to ruthlessly pit brother against brother, Turk against Turk, pomak against pomak to satisfy their selfish interests. This is how we see for the first time extremely clear evidence that these two are liars who never protected, never patronized, never loved their constituents.

- One party, one leader - this turns out to be a problem. Is this a general problem for political parties in our country? We also see in the BSP how they turned off their leader in the person of Cornelia Ninova literally before the elections?
- It is still a problem in our country to have one party and one leader. It is not only with the BSP. Who is the GERD person? Boyko Borisov. When Boyko Borisov leaves, GERB will split into factions. Some with Delyan Dobrev, others with Tomislav Donchev…. The same thing, unfortunately, we see with PP-DB. If something happens to the leader of the party, it simply disintegrates. The same applies to “Yes, Bulgaria”, to “Revival”, to “There is such a people”. Yes, every party is like that in the beginning. Every party in the world begins its life around a leader, an exponent of someone's dreams, a visionary, but then, the moment that party is already established, the first task of that leader is to pull the brakes on himself and build himself organs that to control it. That is, to create organs to restrain him in his self-will. And then, from a project, the political entity grows into a party. In this line of thought, there are only a few serious parties in Bulgaria such as “Edinenie” and the Green Movement, and all of those that are parliamentary-led are leadership projects. In both "Edinenie" and the Green Movement, these mechanisms have been created or are in the process of being created in order to stop the unlimited power of the leader inside the political union. All the rest, without exception, are political projects.

- What to expect in the elections. DPS in two, BSP without a leader, PP-DB remain in coalition – you know them inside out very well… GERB, ITN and “Revival“ looking on the sidelines at the moment…
- What we should note about the next elections is that no one is talking about policies. I'll take the liberty of opening a parenthesis here with an example. A friend of mine owns a restaurant in the center of Sofia, which makes 500,000 BGN a year in net profit. And he wants to leave Bulgaria. He bought terrain to make an ecovillage in our country. He refuses and will now spend 2 million euros to buy an ecovillage in Portugal. How to look at it. A man with opportunities, he has money… We have to think about why he wants to leave. We see daily how small and medium businesses leave Bulgaria. We are not talking about people who are in a dead end. We are talking about people who bring dividends, pay taxes, give salaries, insurances, actively participate in the economy. And they want to leave!? Why? Because Bulgaria has become an extremely inhospitable country for its own citizens. At the moment, we hear absolutely no one talking about how small and medium-sized businesses will survive in our country. And what are we listening to? How many castles did one have, and the other does not explain about his hotel “Berlin”, at the BSP we hear how the leader was bad, but they do not offer a better one. At PP-DB, we listen to how the lists should be rearranged… Here is something that shined particularly bright before this election – we see the total narcissism of the people in the parties. As well as the fact that the parties do not really care about their own voters. And for this, as in the previous elections, we – from “Edinenie”, we will simply go out among the people and tell each other our vision for Bulgaria. This is the big problem that the parties do not talk about Bulgaria. Peevski is not fighting with Dogan about which of the two will lead Bulgaria to the better, and who will steal more. We see the same in PP-DB - they are not arguing about who will take Bulgaria further, but who will be on their lists. Against this background of “Edinenie“ we have a clear vision for Bulgaria and it is very simple - we want Bulgaria to be rich, we want Bulgarians to be happy, to be calm, we want the focus to be on those who pay taxes, not on those who steal them.