Wiretapping scandal rocks election campaign in Bulgaria

6 months ago 34

Leaked wiretaps of leading politicians from the liberal Renew Europe-linked Bulgarian party “We Continue the Change”, in which one is heard saying that the party has a lot of money available in cash, have shaken the campaign ahead of Bulgaria’s early parliamentary and EU elections, scheduled for the same day.

In the taped conversation from the meeting a year ago, party leaders can be heard discussing how to fund their campaign for the April 2023 parliamentary elections, with Asen Vassilev, the party’s co-leader and finance minister until April, heard saying that the party had “a lot of unofficial money in cash”.

“We have nothing to hide – we did not steal money in sacks from (the construction of) highways, we are not blackmailed and extorted businesses,” the party commented after the scandal broke out, omitting to explain what was meant by “unofficial money in cash”.

“Meetings of a political party have been wiretapped. If DANS (the counter-intelligence service) and the other special services are really not involved, we expect their reaction as well,” the party added.

We Continue the Change is currently tipped to come second in the parliamentary elections, with 17.5% of the vote, behind the pro-European Democratic Party of Bulgaria (EPP).

GERB leader Boyko Borissov, whose party is favoured to win elections in June with 27% support so far, accused We Continue the Change of vote-buying and money laundering, saying that those involved “must go to jail quickly”.

“I won’t talk anymore because after 9 June, we won’t be able to say anything to each other,” Borissov added.

Later on Tuesday, Borissov said he was “ready for talks with all parties that can support” our management programme” that GERB presented the same day.

Bulgaria is once again in the throes of a political crisis after the fall of the pro-European government of Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov in April.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)