The wife of Ivan Ganchev, the Shumen regional chairman of Bulgaria’s Socialist Party (BSP), has donated €20,000 to “Progressive Bulgaria”, the political formation of former president Rumen Radev. The donation is the largest recorded so far for the formation’s campaign, according to an investigation by Bird.
The donor is Dilyana Parusheva, who lives with Ganchev. He is a former BSP MP, currently chairs the Municipal Council in Novi Pazar, heads the socialists’ regional organisation in Shumen, sits on the party’s National Council and leads its election campaign.
The donation has attracted attention because of Ganchev’s political position and questions surrounding the origin of the money.
According to the Bird investigation, the money was declared as a gift from a parent following the sale of shares in a company. The business was owned by Parusheva’s late father and was sold in 2025 to Yusmen Shakir Yusmen, an activist with DPS–New Beginning, a parliamentary candidate and current municipal councillor in Varna.
Yusmen is a former classmate of Novi Pazar mayor Georgi Georgiev, who is close to Ganchev. Georgiev, a second-term BSP mayor, is also a member of the party’s National Council.
There are also links to Radev’s political formation in the circle around the mayor. Georgiev’s children’s godmother, Stela Zagorcheva, is third on “Progressive Bulgaria’s” list in Shumen.
According to Bird, another company owned by Yusmen has received public contracts worth around BGN 5m from Novi Pazar municipality. The publication also says that the company previously owned by Parusheva’s father had carried out at least BGN 1m worth of public contracts for the municipality.
The company behind the donation
The company from which the funds originated is “Road Maintenance Novi Pazar”. It was established in 2008 as a limited liability company, with “Pat Konsult” AD as its sole shareholder and Plamen Draganov Parushev as its manager.
In 2009, the company became a joint-stock partnership, with Plamen Parushev and Georgi Grigorov holding equal shares. In 2024, Parushev acquired his partner’s stake and became the sole owner. His wife, Preslava Parusheva, was also brought in as a shareholder.
Dilyana Parusheva briefly became the company’s manager. At the end of 2024, the business was converted back into a single-member company, with Preslava Parusheva as its sole owner.
In May 2025, the company was sold to Yusmen Yusmen.
The company has a history of winning public contracts not only in Novi Pazar but also in Kaolinovo municipality, which is run by Nida Ahmedov, deputy chairman of DPS–New Beginning.
In 2019, “Road Maintenance Novi Pazar” won a contract worth BGN 331,275 for the repair of a street in the village of Pristoe.
At the beginning of 2023, the company won another Kaolinovo municipal contract, worth €218,771, for repairs to streets in the villages of Branichevo and Pristoe.
At the end of 2024, it won a further contract worth €77,501 for the repair of a street in the village of Todor Ikonomovo.
The donation has also prompted speculation about its future. According to unofficial information, Radev’s campaign team is discussing whether the money should be returned.
“I work for the BSP”
Ganchev said he saw nothing improper about the donation made by his partner.
“She made her own decision. If I support CSKA and she supports Levski, what am I supposed to do – leave her?” he said.
According to him, Dilyana Parusheva has never been a member of a political party and has no economic dependencies.
“She made a donation as a personal act for a cause she believes in,” Ganchev said.
He also rejected suggestions from fellow socialists that his close relationship with the mayor of Novi Pazar could lead to more support for Radev’s campaign.
“I work for the BSP, I am running the BSP campaign, I convene the election headquarters, and the only person I owe an explanation to is Krum,” he said, referring to Krum Zarkov.
Ganchev firmly denied that Parusheva’s donation had anything to do with funding from DPS–New Beginning. He said the company owned by her father had been sold in May 2025 and that the buyer had financed the acquisition with a bank loan.
