site.btaOpposition Accuses MRF - New Beginning Leader of Using “Crisis PR Stunts” to Deflect Attention from Budget Debate

Continue the Change (CC) leader Assen Vassilev accused MRF–New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski of trying to divert public attention from the ongoing budget debate with what he called “crisis PR stunts.” The remark came after Peevski presented photos he claimed linked former interior minister and Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria MP Boyko Rashkov to orchestrated vote buying incidents during recent local elections in the southern city of Pazardzhik.

MRF - New Beginning won the elections in Pazardzhik amid concerns of wide-spread vote-buying. In the incident mentioned by Peevski, a suspected vote buyer was detained in a citizens' arrest but police subsequently did not find evidence of wrong-doing. 

Vassilev dismissed the photos that Peevski showed, as an attempt to manipulate public opinion. “It’s very interesting that after three weeks, Peevski’s best damage-control idea is one street photo with Mr. Rashkov — taken while he was actually stopping half the wave of vote-buying,” he said.

Asked about the images, Rashkov said he did not know the person shown in the pictures. “I shook hands with many people,” he added, specifying that the photo “was not taken in front of the polling station itself, but in front of a police car.” 

Ivaylo Mirchev, co-chair of Yes, Bulgaria and MP from Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria, said the MRF–New Beginning leader was acting out of frustration. “Peevski is a man with a fragile psyche. After seeing that Boyko Borissov signed the resignation of [anti-corruption commission head Anton] Slavchev, that fragile psyche flared up, and he came to you, screaming hysterically with those photos,” Mirchev told reporters.