site.btaContinue the Change Co-leader Petkov Says Government's New Strategy Is "Corruption Paradise"

The new strategy of the government can be summarized as a "corruption paradise", Continue the Change (CC) co-leader Kiril Petkov told journalists on the sidelines of Parliament on Friday. Petkov commented on Thursday's press conference in the Council of Ministers on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the State Budget. In his words, the government's strategy has three pillars - the ruling majority, plus Delyan Peevski and his political formation Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) - New Beginning. 

According to CC, the government wants to have BGN 7 billion "pocket money" by means of the debt, which is more than the budget needs. Instead of having BGN 12 billion debt, the government envisioned a debt of BGN 18.9 billion, which Petkov said is "de facto BGN 7 billion in pocket money".

The second step of the "corruption paradise", in his words, is to put "Delyan Peevski's man" next week to head the Commission on Protection of Competition (CPC) and to manage BGN 30 billion in public procurement. The government's third step would be not to adopt anti-corruption legislation and not to have a new and functional anti-corruption commission. 

Petkov noted that what his parliamentary group will do is to demand that the debt in the 2025 State Budget be BGN 12 billion, instead of BGN 18.9 billion. Secondly, the political formation will propose a "real alternative to Rosen Karadimov for the chairmanship of the CPC in the name of Ivan Stoynev. Petkov said that his party will also insist that the three anti-corruption bills enter Parliament in the following week. He noted that it is important not only for the legislation to enter the National Assembly, but also for the rules for electing members of the anti-corruption commission to be adopted. 

At some point, the ruling majority will have to choose - do they continue to listen to Peevski all the time or do they listen to the parties that support them, Petkov said when asked whether, in his opinion, the ruling majority is stable.

The idea, proposed on Thursday in Brussels by Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov to be given the opportunity to use funds from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism that are not used and cannot be absorbed for this defence cluster, Petkov commented that "they are trying to renegotiate for defence, but no matter where the money should be used, it should be taken".