Photo: GERB – Shumen website
The people in the northern municipalities of the region (Shumen) have abandoned their principles and betrayed the ideas they have defended for years because they are afraid. They are afraid of what tomorrow will bring and whether they will be able to feed their families,” said Lyubomir Hristov, regional coordinator of GERB in Shumen, former mayor of the regional city, and current member of parliament.
His statement is even more significant given that the northern municipalities in the Shumen region, known as Deliorman, are a former stronghold of Dogan and the current citadel of Delian Peevski, a politician sanctioned for corruption by the US and the UK. Otherwise, the mayors there are the same, only instead of taking pictures with the Honorary Chairman, they take pictures under the coat of arms, choosing the “right side” as early as the split of the DPS in 2024.
Lyubomir Hristov’s analysis of the situation in Shumen was published on the GERB-Shumen Facebook page after the local party leader’s meetings with people in the area.
On Wednesday, October 15, GERB ministers and MPs set off across the country to review the state of the party’s structures. On the orders of leader Boyko Borisov, they are to meet with rank-and-file members and see “what has been eaten away at GERB – arms, legs, tripe.” . Borisov sent his people out after the party’s embarrassing sixth place finish in the Pazardzhik elections and said that “whether there will be early elections will depend on your reports on our state.”
What is left of the party’s hands and feet in Shumen?
If he is to be completely honest, Lyubomir Hristov should write in his report that in the Shumen municipalities governed by Peevski, there is almost nothing left of GERB – there, the party’s body has long since been eaten away, “hands, feet, and tripe.” Hristov does indeed talk about the fear in the northern municipalities, but he does not mention at all who governs these areas.
“In the so-called mixed regions, ethnic party guarantors are advancing, threatening people with the deprivation of one of the most important things, namely their honest livelihood. Threats to their livelihoods have led to relatives being unable to attend family celebrations and long-time friends not greeting each other. People in the northern municipalities of the region have abandoned their principles and betrayed the long-standing ideas they have defended because they are afraid. They are afraid of what tomorrow will bring and whether they will be able to feed their families,” writes Lyubomir Hristov on his Facebook profile.
He states that he has held meetings with municipal leaders of the party from Venets, Varbitsa, Kaolinovo, Nikola Kozlevo, Novi Pazar, and Hitrino, as well as with the municipal leadership of Shumen, GERB-elected councilors, and mayors of municipalities in the Shumen municipality. After the meetings, he came to the sad conclusion that people in the northern municipalities are afraid and are abandoning long-standing ideas out of fear.
However, the GERB regional coordinator is deafeningly silent about WHO is in charge in these municipalities.
Hristov does not say a word about the fact that the municipalities of Venets, Varbitsa, Kaolinovo, and Nikola Kozlevo are governed by mayors who have declared their loyalty to the politician sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act. The fact is that in these municipalities, the mayors’ party (DPS-NN) has an absolute majority in the municipal councils, and the few councillors from other parties hardly ever speak up and dare not vote against the mayor’s will.
In the municipality of Kaolinovo, for example, whose mayor Nida Ahmedov is deputy chairman of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms-New Start, decisions in the Municipal Council are taken unanimously and all 21 councillors support all the mayor’s reports, even though there are four representatives of GERB in the local parliament. The situation is the same in the municipality of Venets. This is probably what Lyubomir Hristov means when he writes that “people are betraying their long-standing ideas,” but he does not mention either New Beginning or Peevski’s name. One wonders who has eaten GERB’s hands and feet…
At the same time, Lyubomir Hristov extensively attacks the administration in Novi Pazar, which is headed by a mayor from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), otherwise a coalition partner of GERB in the government. Here is what Hristov wrote on this subject: “A similar oppressive strategy is being pursued in Novi Pazar by the local leftists. The few who resist this type of attack do not know how long they will be able to hold out. This raises the question of the lack of a coalition culture and the urgent need for one. Some of our partners are careerists who do not think about the stability of the state and its actual governance… We saw how the masks came off, how the BSP showed a willingness to negotiate and compromise,” commented Lyubomir Hristov.
He stated that on Friday, GERB MPs will present the reports of the country’s structures to Boyko Borisov, and the GERB executive committee will make “important and perhaps difficult decisions.”
We sought comment from Lyubomir Hristov, but he did not respond to our calls.
