Bulgarian Interior Minister Admits Howler over GERB Presidential Candidate

Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has said that political opponents of ruling party GERB initiated a round of mudslinging because they had nothing to show for their term in office.

In a Saturday interview for Draik radio, Tsvetanov, who is also head of GERB's election headquarters, commented on the attack staged by the opposition on the occasion of the alleged bribe offer made in 2007 to the party's current presidential candidate, Rosen Plevneliev.

Speaking at a seminar on 09 September, Tsvetanov mentioned that GERB's presidential runner had rejected to pay EUR 500 000 under the table to get ownership of a municipality owned plot of land located on the territory of Business Park Sofia.

Tsvetanov explained that he had spoken for over an hour on topics related to vote-buying, as well as other typical problems plaguing the organization of local elections.

In the course of his speech, Tsvetanov used Plevneliev's case to illustrate that GERB's presidential hopeful was not a person who would get involved in such corrupt schemes.

As news of the rejected and unreported bribe offer spread like wildfire, Plevneliev announced that he had never been personally approached by bribe "brokers", insisting that the 2007 case all boiled down to very remote hints.

Stressing that the "corrupt element" in Sofia's governance had been constantly present for the past 15 years, Tsvetanov echoed Plevneliev's account of the bribe attempt given in an interview for a Bulgarian weekly in 2007.

"It was really a mistake on my part to use this as an example, given the configuration of people that were in attendance, because my statement was subsequently adorned with unimaginable claims", the Interior Minister stated.

Shortly after the 09 September occurrence, Tsvetanov explained that he was the most passionate supporter of Plevneliev for the presidential post.

The scandal reached a new stage yesterday, as socialist candidate for Sofia Mayor Georgi Kadiev announced the names of the three "brokers" allegedly involved in the 2007 blackmail attempt.

However, Orlin Ivanov and Radoslav Toshev, municipal councilors from center-right ruling party GERB, and Danail Kirilov, Sofia District Governor, presented documents showing that they had voted for the deal in question.

The three also said that Kadiev was on some sort of "hard drugs" and vowed to sue him full tilt.