By Georgi Gotev
The Bulgarian Prime Minister and leader of GERB Boyko Borissov has an interesting biography and is no saint, by any means. And it looks like his arch-foes, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), has exposed skeletons in his closet, days before the European elections, in which GERB and BSP are neck and neck.
The GERB party (EPP-affiliated) has suffered from a series of scandals related with property: first the “apartment scandal”, then the “guesthouses scam”, which involves EU money.
GERB has fired back and accused Elena Yoncheva, the head of list of BSP, of taking advantage of three such “guest houses”. Yoncheva said the owner was her step-father, who obtained them before she met her step-family.
And on Monday (20 May) it was Yoncheva who fired back at Borissov.
In the BSP daily ‘Duma’ she accused him that in his former capacity of mayor of Sofia, he facilitated a swap deal of terrain in favour of his cousin Radoslav Ivanov. She also accused him of being the owner of a luxury house in Barcelona.
Borissov was quick to deny, even saying that he is in conflict with his cousin and “doesn’t speak to him”. In a surreal TV appearance, together with EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel on bTV public channel, he claimed being in very bad terms with his cousins, and even having beaten two of them “because of a [a conflict over a] pump”.
Among other things, she said that he doesn’t speak to his cousins, and when they see each other, he only waves at them.
Regarding the Barcelona house, he said it was the property of Sasho Chaushev, (Aleksandar Chaushev) a pharmaceutical boss, and not his.
Yoncheva doubled down with information she published on Facebook, including scanned documents, which seemingly indicate that Radoslav Ivanov has become the owner of Borissov’s former business, including ‘Ipon’, the bodyguard company founded by him.
Moreover, she stated on the BSP website that she insists the prosecutor general to investigate the house in Barcelona.
Borissov also said he expected some compromising material against him or GERB to be made public on Thursday or Friday, just before the elections, so there would be no possibility to respond. According to Bulgarian law, on the day before elections (Saturday) political messages are prohibited.
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