Speaking after the Court of Appeal upheld the decision to keep Varna Mayor Blagomir Kotsev in custody, former Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov from “We Continue the Change” declared that Bulgaria had entered a state of dictatorship. “We are not afraid. There aren’t enough handcuffs for the free people of Sofia,” Denkov said, calling on citizens to protest. He warned that Bulgaria must not be allowed to turn into a “pigsty.”

Denkov criticized the judiciary, noting that the Court of Appeal had demonstrated it cannot exercise control over the Prosecutor’s Office, which he accused of acting arbitrarily during pre-trial proceedings. He pointed to several developments that, in his words, signal a collapse of democratic governance: “Intercepted and falsified elections, confirmed by the Constitutional Court; a Prosecutor’s Office that operates without oversight; court cases used to imprison political opponents. We are already in a dictatorship.”

He called on Sofia residents to join a public demonstration in response.

Asen Vassilev, co-leader of the WCC, echoed Denkov’s statements, claiming Bulgaria is witnessing an orchestrated effort to seize total political control. He directly accused Delyan Peevski's DPS-New Beginning of attempting to take over the party system and using “captured institutions” to silence dissent.

“This entire operation isn’t just against us,” Vassilev said. “It’s about establishing one-man rule, where Peevski gives orders over the phone. That’s what they want.”

He described the current legal climate as one of gross abuse, asserting that “the law is being trampled in the ugliest possible way.”