site.btaMayor Terziev Denies Allegations of “Parallel Power” in Sofia Municipality

After Save Sofia announced their decision to quit the CC-DB coalition, which is behind the capital city’s local government, on April 23 Mayor Vassil Terziev commented in his Facebook profile: “There is no parallel power in Sofia Municipality, regardless of how convenient such a theory may be. It is easy to explain your own failures and your own inability by blaming someone else. I am the one who makes the decisions about Sofia’s governance, good or bad, and I bear the responsibility.”

In his post, Terziev denies allegations that he is dependent on MP Delyan Peevski, who leads the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning. The Mayor says: “I have never met Peevski, never talked to him or any of the people who are said to be his left arm or his right arm. It makes no sense to claim that I am dependent on him when we clash every day with the ministries controlled by Peevski.”

Terziev says that he passed a polygraph test recently, and the questions about whether he had made decisions under pressure, under the threat of discrediting disclosures, and whether he had used his official position for personal gains, received a clear answer: No.

The Mayor’s comments are accompanied by a video of an interview he gave for bTV earlier in the day.

He also writes: “Governance is a tough job, particularly in a hostile environment. You bear enormous responsibility for every decision, and you need to be prepared to walk the long road of turning good ideas into good practice. Being in opposition is far easier, and that is what Save Sofia chose to be.”

According to Terziev, Save Sofia left the city’s governing coalition because they obviously decided to start a campaign for the next elections. “They have long been an internal opposition, so their withdrawal from the coalition is not a big change,” he writes.