Varna mayor Blagomir Kotsev. Source: Varna municipality

Blagomir Kotsev, the opposition mayor of Varna, will remain in custody on corruption charges, and out of concern that he might otherwise commit more wrongdoings, the Sofia Court of Appeals decided late on Tuesday. 

The measure means he will likely stay behind bars for eight months, or until the Prosecution files an indictment against him kickstarting a trial. Protests in support of Kotsev in Varna and Sofia will be organised on Wednesday, condemning the ruling as politically motivated. 

Valérie Hayer MEP, chair of the liberal and centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, in a letter to the European Commission, has described the case as “institutional perversion” and as “not an anti-corruption success story but precisely its antithesis”, calling on Brussels to halt EU grants to Bulgaria under its Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Kotsev was arrested on July 8 by anti-corruption police forces after an owner of a food-catering company, which had worked with the municipality under the previous GERB-linked mayor, claimed he had demanded a bribe in the autumn of 2024 to greenlight further collaboration. [At the time of this alleged meeting, there were no active tenders.] 

The court order has been condemned as repressive, given the mayor’s affiliation with We Continue the Change, the main opposition party to GERB, which is now part of the ruling coalition. GERB would potentially benefit from regaining control of Bulgaria’s third biggest city, host to its biggest seaport complex and a major tourist location.

Numerous details have remained vague, contradictory and confusing: audio snippets were leaked, witnesses have backtracked on testimonies, and a case for corruption is unfolding, even though the evidence so far contains no mention of actual sums changing hands or transfers of money. 

“None of the people questioned have pointed to any trace of Kotsev being connected to organised crime or corruption,” defence lawyer Ina Lulcheva said on Tuesday, adding that, currently, the case doesn’t even mention the mayor asking for a bribe, but only claims he was aware that one was sought by the food company owner. She also noted that many of the witnesses’ reports sounded suspiciously identical.

Kotsev reaffirms that he is innocent, says he never even met the company owner, and was offered a bribe by a third party, rather than demanded one. In court on Tuesday, he said also he felt he had “already been sentenced”.

One of the witnesses, former deputy mayor Dian Ivanov, has meanwhile said he gave testimonies under pressure from the police and, in recent interviews, has claimed that details of these testimonies were circulating in the media even before he was questioned. On July 16, Ivanov asked the Prosecution not to take his statements into account; no reaction followed. 

On September 18, GERB leader and former PM Boyko Borissov refused to discuss the case, telling local media: “If somebody gives me a Blagomir Kotsev T-shirt, I’ll put it on and get you to photograph me with it, just so you can all stop asking me about him.” 

The allegations against the mayor have triggered nationwide protests, with many seeing the arrest as a possible sign of an alliance between GERB and the tycoon “New Beginning” leader Delyan Peevski to crush the opposition.

Kotsev was born in Varna in 1979. He graduated in Commerce from the American University of Washington and in Finance from the University of London before returning to work in his family’s shipping business and a local hotel and restaurant. 

Before being elected mayor, as regional governor, he gained positive reports for welcoming Ukrainian refugees in Varna and surrounding resorts following the outbreak of full-scale war with Russia.

In 2023, he came to office after unexpectedly beating GERB’s Ivan Portnih, who was mayor for the previous ten years. Portnih had been associated with various controversies, including being charged by the European Prosecution for pollution in the area.  

The same year, GERB also lost control over the capital Sofia when, in the same mayoral elections, We Continue the Change won with Vassil Terziev, another entrepreneur who made the switch to politics.