Photo: Shumen Municipality
The rapid turnover of personnel in the Shumen Municipality continues, having begun just days after the newly elected mayor Hristo Hristov (BSP) took office in November 2023. In two years of his term, Hristov has managed to set a national record by replacing three press secretaries and five deputy mayors, and now the municipality’s secretary, Hristo Pavlov, is also on the agenda.
As of January 21, the municipality of Shumen has a new secretary, Irina Kyoseva, according to a laconic announcement from the mayor’s press office. According to official information, the previous secretary, Hristo Pavlov, resigned by mutual agreement after giving notice. The dismissal of Pavlov, who until recently was considered one of the mayor’s closest associates, became known on January 14, when municipal councilors from the “Cause Shumen” group told reporters that a new secretary of the municipality was about to be appointed. There was public speculation about a conflict between the mayor and the secretary, but our questions to the Shumen municipality about whether Hristo Pavlov had decided to leave on his own or had been forced out of his job have so far gone unanswered.
Hristo Pavlov is a lawyer, former employee of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) and former deputy regional governor. Until recently, he was considered one of the people closest to the mayor, with whom he shares a past in the security forces and regional administration.
The municipality says that the new secretary, Irina Kyoseva, has over 20 years of professional experience in the Ministry of Environment and Water, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and the Ministry of Interior, and has held management positions at various levels. In the municipality of Shumen, Kyoseva will be responsible for the administrative management of employees.
There will also be a change in the chief architect of Shumen. The current chief architect, Tsvetana Zhekova, now holds the position of director of the “Architecture, Urban Development and Spatial Planning” department in the municipality of Varna. Zhekova has been chief architect of the municipality of Shumen since 2024. Until a competition is held, the position has been temporarily assigned to architect Desita Ducheva.
The personnel merry-go-round “grinds down” five deputy mayors
The personnel merry-go-round in the municipality of Shumen began just two months after Mayor Hristo Hristov took office with the resignation of his media advisor Kamen Andonov, a university lecturer. Andonov had been close to Hristov during the election campaign from the very beginning, when few in Shumen believed that the BSP candidate would win the mayor’s office. However, the media expert resigned after an attack against him on several fronts, which began with the municipal councilors from GERB and continued with publications in local media. After his resignation, Kamen Andonov commented that the media pressure on him was probably related to the money that the municipality of Shumen had been paying to certain media outlets for years. Andonov was a staunch opponent of this practice and insisted that the municipality should not pay for “media comfort” but should work with the media according to clear rules.
The practice of media comfort is not only not restricted, but is also flourishing. At the end of 2025, it became known that Shumen Mayor Hristo Hristov had paid over BGN 107,000 to various media outlets for so-called information services and consultations. After Kamen Andonov, two more journalists replaced him as press secretary before the mayor appointed his current media advisor, Pepa Georgieva, who was previously a PR expert in the municipality of Varna.
Andonov’s resignation, scandalous and telling in itself, marked the beginning of a long series of personnel changes in the municipality of Shumen. Over the following months, the personnel merry-go-round “ground down” five deputy mayors.
The first of the deputy mayors to leave was Prof. Svetla Stankova, deputy mayor of Shumen for education and culture. She participated in the election campaign alongside the mayor and was elected as a municipal councilor from the BSP list, and was then appointed to her position as a “proposal of the BSP.” Three months later, Stankova migrated to the Vazrazhdane party, probably seeking protection against the impending mayoral “sweep”.
In April 2024, after only five months in office, Prof. Stankova left, handing in her resignation.
For personal reasons
At the end of June 2024, the deputy mayor for construction and urban development, architect Nikolay Simeonov, also decided to leave the mayor’s team. He cited personal reasons as his motive. After him, two more incumbents changed positions. Eng. Liliyana Gaydarzieva became deputy mayor for construction on July 1, but remained in this position for less than four months and resigned, also “for personal reasons.” Then, in October 2024, Eng. Andrean Vanov was appointed deputy mayor for construction, and he still holds this position.
Three deputy mayors were also replaced in the “education, science, and culture” department. After Prof. Stankova, Assoc. Prof. Victoria Kovchazova was appointed deputy mayor for education. She held the position for less than a year, from July 1, 2024, to the end of April 2025. “The former deputy mayor for education and culture, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Victoria Kovchazova, has submitted her resignation for personal reasons, and Mayor Hristo Hristov has accepted it,” the administration announced, as in previous cases. In early May 2025, Daniela Savcheva, a former expert from the administration, was appointed deputy mayor for education and culture. She is still in office.
In June 2025, Desislava Petrova, the deputy mayor for budget and finance, was unexpectedly replaced. Her position was given to the municipal chairman of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) – New Start in Shumen, Beynur Ahmed, who is not a financier but provides the mayor of Shumen with a “warm connection” to the party leader Delian Peevski. Ahmed took over Shumen’s finances on June 1, 2025, and during his presentation, Mayor Hristov stated that “this will ensure a majority in the Municipal Council to achieve the goals it has set for itself.” Desislava Petrova returned to her position as director of the Budget and Finance Department at Shumen Municipality and continues to be the person who understands budgets and finances better than anyone else, including the deputy mayor in charge.
Currently, the mayor’s original team includes Deputy Mayor for Social Policy Svetoslava Hainova, elected on the BSP ticket, and Deputy Mayor for Economy Nikolay Kolev, elected on the PP-DB ticket. In 2025, the mayor of Shumen appointed a sixth deputy, Daniela Ruseva, who is responsible for European projects. Previously, Ruseva was a municipal councilor on Meglena Kuneva’s Bulgaria for Citizens Movement list.
The constant changes in the municipality’s management and the turnover in the administration are not good for work and demotivate people, according to municipal employees.
