Letter of Concern: Repression Against the Pro-European Opposition in Bulgaria

ROBERTA METSOLA

PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

ANTÓNIO KOSTA

PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL

URSULA VON DER LEYEN

PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Letter of Concern: Repression Against the Pro-European Opposition in Bulgaria

Dear President Metsola,

Dear President Kosta,

Dear President Von der Leyen,

We, the citizens of Bulgaria, who firmly believe in the European project and aspire to the EU values and policies, express a profound concern regarding the systematic attacks against democracy and the rule of law in our country. After decades of efforts toward integration into the EU and NATO, we are witnessing a troubling erosion of institutional independence and the rise of authoritarian practices. Over the last decades dominant political and economic actors have skillfully exploited our aspiration for European integration to strengthen clientelist networks and strategic corruption that corrodes the institutional and legal order in Bulgaria.

Key state organs—the prosecution, parts of the judiciary, the anti-corruption commission,  various administrations—are being used as instruments of repression against political opponents. We observe selective attacks against the sole pro-European parliamentary opposition—the Continue the Change party and the Democratic Bulgaria coalition—and complete inaction regarding many other scandalous corruption cases. The Chief Prosecution Office and the Commission for Prevention of Corruption (CPC), dominated by private interests, act in service of a political alliance between Delyan Peevski (sanctioned for corruption in the United Kingdom and under the Magnitsky Act in the USA), leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms “New Beginning,” and Boyko Borisov, leader of GERB. This tacit, but completely apparent political-oligarchic alliance aims to capture power by forces operating behind the scenes and to replace the democratic process. At the same time, the leaders of the two parties prevent the lifting of parliamentary immunity for MPs of the pro-Russian Revival party to be prosecuted for brutal attacks against the representation of the European Commission and the European Parliament in Sofia, and against Europeanism in Bulgaria generally.

Most striking and indicative is the case of the arrest of the Mayor of Varna, Blagomir Kotsev, on July 8, 2025—mere hours before the vote on a crucial municipal budget for which he insisted on transparency. This act, carried out with demonstrative violation of the law and on the day of the announcement of our final acceptance into the Eurozone, carries a clear political message: institutions can be used to seize democratically won power and crush the opposition. The hearing of the case regarding the detention measure for Mayor Kotsev and two municipal councilors in a major Sofia court, instead of by competence in the Varna District Court, and the refusal of its composition to terminate the case and send it to Varna, represents another emblematic example of violation of the rule of law. This was followed by a third such instance—the demonstrative disregard of all legal arguments by the defense counsel and a shameful judicial decision to keep Kotsev in detention, devoid of valid legal grounds. Furthermore, the Sofia Court of Appeals also accepted that it could hear the case with the absurd reasoning that the prosecutorial act of an investigating inspector from the CPC, which urgently initiated pre-trial proceedings, determines the competence of the respective prosecution office and thereby of the court in the same judicial district, and this act according to the judicial panel of the Sofia Court of Appeals is not subject to judicial control. This means that the Prosecution Service can choose the court in which cases are to be heard, while the Court has no right of assessment, which is absurd and returns us to the dark times of “Vyshinsky’s” Soviet law! The three-member judicial panel confirmed the detention measure despite the withdrawal of testimony by a key witness in the case, whose testimony had supposedly confirmed until that moment the testimony of the prosecution’s main witness, thus becoming a servant of the Prosecution Service instead of an independent arbiter.

Thus, through the Prosecution Service and the Court, the lawfully elected local executive power of the country is being replaced, and an attempt is being made to destroy the political opposition!

These brazen repressions coincide with the most critical report to date by the European Commission on the Rule of Law in Bulgaria (2025), which highlights the deepening of failures and systemic problems in the fight against corruption and the independence of the judiciary.

We are witnessing attempts to replace Bulgaria’s European path with a hybrid pro-Russian model, clearly linked to interests close to the Kremlin. For years, the pro-European opposition has been systematically blocked to prevent it from stopping the circumvention of European sanctions against Russian energy sources, abuses of European funds, and the lack of control over budgetary expenditures left to the discretion of governments wavering between the EU and Russia. This creates conditions for corruption, intensifies public alienation, and legitimizes Russian propaganda.

We call upon the European Parliament, the European Council, and the European Commission:

To investigate Delyan Peevski as the main political sponsor of actions by law enforcement organs and parts of the judiciary aimed at long-term destabilization of Bulgaria immediately after its acceptance into the Eurozone, which is an unwavering priority of the Kremlin.

To support the resistance of pro-European civil society forces in Bulgaria against the oligarchic and pro-Russian model of governance being imposed in the country;

To condemn the political repressions against the pro-European opposition, particularly in connection with the case of the completely unfounded and unnecessary detention of Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev;

To link European funding with real structural reforms in the judiciary that will resolve systemic problems;

To strengthen support for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and place under special supervision the actions of the Bulgarian prosecution service, through which systematic obstruction of its work occurs;

To carefully monitor deformations of democratic processes in Bulgaria and circumvention of the law, and to impose necessary sanctions on persons found guilty of corruption by objective criteria and undermining of European values.

The European Union is a community built upon democracy and the rule of law. If these principles are trampled in one member state, the integrity of the entire Union is threatened. Therefore, we insist on solidarity and decisive action.

We believe that the primary responsibility falls upon us, Bulgarian citizens, but we also rely on the resolve of European institutions to act with the necessary speed and uncompromising determination.

July 18, 2025

·  Prof. Alexander Kiossev

·  Prof. Amelia Licheva

·  Arman Babikyan, PR expert

·  Biser Manolov, financier

·  Bobby Petrov, financier

·  Boyko Noev, diplomat

·  Boyko Stankushev, journalist

·  Prof. Vasil Garnizov

·  Velizar Shalamanov, researcher

·  Vesislava Tancheva, PR expert

·  Velislav Velichkov, lawyer

·  Ret. Colonel Vladimir Milenski

·  Vladislav Panev, financier

·  Prof. Georgi Fotev

·  Prof. Daniela Koleva

·  Assoc. Prof. Daniel Smilov

·  Dimitar Georgiev, doctor

·  Prof. Evgeni Dainov

·  Evgeny Kanev, financier

·  Ivo Berov, journalist

·  Ivo Indzhev, journalist

·  Ilian Vassilev, diplomat

·  Prof. Kosta Kostov

·  Assoc. Prof. Krasen Stanchev

·  Lyubomir Alamanov, communications expert

·  Assoc. Prof. Metodi Andreev

·  Petromir Kanchev, lawyer

·  Radoslav Bimbalov, writer

·  Prof. Svetoslav Malinov

·  Ret. Major General Stefan Dimitrov

·  Prof. Todor Tagarev