You sent the declaration to the parties that will be part of the next parliament, for the so-called cordon sanitaire around Delyan Peevski. What will happen if GERB-SDF does not support it?
Nikolay Denkov: This will mean that there will be no talks with them regarding the work of the National Assembly, including the election of the Speaker. And it means that GERB has decided to work with Peevski.
And thus opens the possibility that the work of the National Assembly will be blocked at the end of the year, while the state still does not have an adopted budget, and the committees, including a possible one to investigate electoral abuses, have yet to be formed.
Nikolay Denkov: On the contrary. This means that GERB has probably secured a majority with other parties and for them the most valuable thing is to continue cooperation with Peevski. It is extremely clear that Borisov will otherwise continue with "DPS - New Beginning" with compromising material, bought elections, clubs, the election of Sarafov as Prosecutor General, the election of the Chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court with this composition of the Supreme Judicial Council. This is the plan that they have set out to implement. We offered them another majority, from which Peevski and his "New Beginning" are isolated. Borisov is obviously not ready to accept this option.
Can this majority be formed with Ahmed Dogan and his "Alliance for Rights and Freedoms"?
Nikolay Denkov: Everyone says that a stable government should be sought through the first two parties. The first two parties are GERB and PP-DB.
But you don't have enough votes.
Nikolay Denkov: Of course, but if this can be the basis for any government, it must be built on clear priorities. These include isolating Peevski and restarting work on the laws related to the Recovery and Sustainability Plan. This direction is completely clear.
If they still support you, how will you guarantee this time, unlike the previous one, that people associated with Delyan Peevski will not end up in high positions? As happened with Kalin Stoyanov, for example.
Nikolay Denkov: There should be open competitions for all important positions with public competitions and nominations. The nomination committee, which should organize and conduct the hearing, should review and arrange the relevant candidates. This is, for example, written in the rules for the Anti-Corruption Commission. It is this process of open and public hearings with opportunities for nominations from different parties that is not currently accepted by GERB and the MRF. This also blocks the processes.
You define your participation in the previous governing configuration, called with the unpleasant word "assembly", as a mistake. Do you feel guilty before your voters for allowing Delyan Peevski to frame even when you were Prime Minister?
Nikolay Denkov: The question posed in this way includes a suggestion that hides the essence. And the point is that Borisov and Peevski have controlled the main institutions in the state for many years. This did not change after the protests in 2020 and 2021. They fell silent and waited for the moment to rehabilitate themselves. With the "assembly" we tried to dismantle this system through changes in the relevant laws, the Constitution and appointments. What was seen is that this direction is not acceptable to Borisov and Peevski, because it started to give some results and the "assembly" was broken. It must be clearly stated that they have not lost power in the last 10 years.
Including during your administration.
Nikolay Denkov: I have said it clearly enough. It is for this reason that there was a proposal to the president to replace the chairman of the State Security Service, to recall also about some elections in which the machines failed due to an active action by the State Security Service, but then the president did not get involved. It is precisely for this reason that there was a proposal from the PP-DB to replace the Minister of Internal Affairs, which they attributed to us. It was seen that the DPS and Borisov did not accidentally keep it. The real problem is that this power was not dismantled, because there was no time and there was no majority that could do it.
Do you see a majority among these eight political forces in the next parliament for this to happen?
Nikolay Denkov: What I see is that Bulgaria is facing a huge danger. We have been explaining it for months. We are on the verge of a severe dictatorship led by Peevski and Borisov, so instead of looking at what the "assembly" failed to do, we must realize that those who have been holding the institutions all along are now on the counterattack. "The Empire strikes back", as we jokingly say, although there is no room for jokes anymore. They will try to impose a brutal dictatorship.
We must block the complete takeover of the state. There is control over the justice system and the services, there is serious control over part of the media, they managed to distort the elections so that they could inflate their results in a way that is obviously not just controversial, but scandalous. The last step left for them is to take control of the political leadership. We are at this stage.
Should the elections be annulled?
Nikolay Denkov: There are an extremely large number of signals from all over the country about violations. There is a problem with the threshold for one of the parties, which is not at all clear whether it passes it or not, because it seems that it should have passed it. These are serious grounds to discuss whether the elections should be annulled. There are grounds for discussion, signals are being collected, we will see to what extent we can build a case that can be presented to the Constitutional Court so that it receives a positive decision. Because the last thing we need is to start a procedure that will subsequently wash away the entire process.
Are you ready to partner with other political forces on this basis - outside of GERB and "DPS - New Beginning"?
Nikolay Denkov: Regarding the fight against corruption, electoral problems and possible changes to the electoral code, if it is seen that there is a stable majority that can make reasonable problems, we should discuss them with everyone. A large part of the problems today are the result of some votes several parliaments ago, in which GERB and DPS turned the machines into printing presses. Currently, the government and the CEC say that they cannot change the result based on the records and yes, that is the electoral code today, but it is like that because decisions were made precisely by those parties that benefit from such violations. We need to seek agreement on how to restore the foundations of democracy - free and fair elections - in order to start moving upwards again.
What should the 51st parliament do the moment it is formed?
Nikolay Denkov: These are the budget for next year, the anti-corruption laws, the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the blocking of the election of a new Prosecutor General and of a President of the Supreme Administrative Court. These are urgent matters. But the really big question is whether this National Assembly will be able to stop the slide of democracy in Bulgaria towards a severe dictatorship. I use these words with a clear awareness of what they mean. If this scenario is realized, we will see something similar to Belarus rather than Orban's Hungary.
But do you understand what the thesis "We need to partner with Borisov so that Borisov does not become a dictator" sounds like?
Nikolay Denkov: Bulgaria is going down this path with the bond between Peevski and Borisov. The institutions are more likely to be controlled by Peevski, and the parliamentary majority is more likely to be secured by Borisov through GERB. The first thing we are trying to do is break this bond.
Do you really think you can prevent the election of Borislav Sarafov as Prosecutor General?
Nikolay Denkov: We will try. What we need is to gather a majority and adopt this amendment to the Judiciary Law, which we prepared and submitted in the previous National Assembly, but it was not advanced.
But the current composition of the SJC is obviously determined to make this choice.
Nikolay Denkov: As long as all democratically minded people are wondering what to find the PP-DB guilty of, we will not succeed. If all democratically minded people realize what the danger is and understand that we must act together, then there would be a chance.
Perhaps a large part of democratically minded people want to make sure that the PP-DB has learned from its mistakes.
Nikolay Denkov: While they wait and watch, it will indeed be too late. We have missed many opportunities.
Author: Alexander Detev