Политика

"We demand the immediate resignation of all municipal councillors and new partial elections for the Municipal Council".
In the past week, this sentence from a declaration of a civic initiative committee under the name "For a stable local authority" has raised the already high degree of political tension in Velingrad. The declaration was read by dentist Dr. Nelly Dremalova on the evening of September 21 from the Beevi brothers' cable TV screen in the form of a paid message. As authors of the declaration, 6 or 8 local doctors were named, but subsequently some of them publicly announced that their names were interspersed without their consent.
The final demand for the resignation of the entire Municipal Council polarized public opinion among citizens, but at the same time united a huge part of local politicians. The response of the municipal councilors came on September 23 at a specially convened press conference at which two declarations were presented. The first was official on behalf of the Municipal Council, read by Chairman Nejat Kehayov. In it, the councilors defined the initiative of the citizens' committee as "a targeted political and media impact on voters in the municipality" and invited the initiators to a meeting-dispute on September 30 in the municipality. The second declaration was by a group of municipal councillors, read by the chairwoman of the Economic Commission Boryana Belukhova. In this declaration, under which 21 councillors later put their signatures, Mr. Beev's personal interests, tied to municipal money and property, are openly stated. On Friday from the screen of his own TV F. Beev announced that he will sue the signatories of the declaration.(In the name of objectivity we publish separately on p. 2 and 3 the texts of the declaration of the citizens' committee and the two declarations of the councillors).
The press conference was attended by councilors from all political parties represented in the local parliament and the independent Georgi Mihailov, did not participate the councilors of the Green Party in Bulgaria, with whose registration Fidel Beev won the mayoral elections. Chairman N. Kehayov explained that he tried to talk to Green Party advisers, but they hung up on him. There is no opinion from the Green Party, no resignations of their advisers have also been deposited, Mr Kehayov explained.
When asked whether the attack of the citizens' committee is directed personally against the councilors or totally against the parties with whose lists they have entered the local parliament, answered Ekaterina Kaferinova. She recalled that in a recent interview in his own television, first Mr. Fidel Beev had spoken out against the political system and the parties. While Mr. Beev had a majority in the Municipal Council, there were no attacks, but when he lost it, he proposed to make a change to the non-existent "law on municipal councilors". Since the citizens' committee also accused the municipal councilors of economic and corporate interests, this led to the thought that his initiative was a continuation of the demands of F. Beev, said Mrs. Kaferinova. She described the request for resignation of the Municipal Council as dangerous, as it means the entire local authority to remain concentrated in the mayor, and this smells of dictatorship and totalitarianism at a time when our state is on the doorstep of the European Union. The advisor from the BZNS-NS asked if the members of the citizens' committee accepted the invitation for a dispute, to name for each advisor the facts of corruption. If they do not defend their charges with facts, then the councillors will bring civil actions against the initiative committee to undermine the prestige. Ms. Kaferinova asked why these people from the initiative committee, whose names do not appear anywhere and have hidden, have never before posed the problems during the open for all sessions of the Municipal Council and called for reason and dialogue.
My business card of a civil servant refutes the attacks from the declaration of the civic committee, I do not have a company, nor a pavilion, nor any other personal or corporate interest, said the adviser from NDSV Atanas Vodev. He also pointed out that the responsibility of the so-called civil association is not personified, the declaration is not signed. Mr. Vodev went back to the beginning of F's reign. Beev also stressed that the Municipal Council has given its support by accepting the structure of the administration and budget proposed by the mayor. But in the 4 months that followed, the mayor's team did not give a strategy and development plan to the municipality, did not set priorities. Of the 15 mayoral candidates in the elections, only Mr. Beev had no platform and therefore in the omniment Velingrad is building a house without a plan and we have come so far, the adviser pointed out. And more: the local parliament has not received a single figure regarding the financial provision of the municipality, in education it has come to a temporary committee of councillors to check the readiness for the school year, and in the last 2 months the councillors have been placed before a fait accompli with contracts concluded by Mr. Dulev such as the one for the cleaning with Beev and Beev. When talking about a stable local authority, the civil association to see if the commitments of the administration were met, recommended At. Vodev.
The declaration of the civil association has not been filed with the Municipal Council, it is done a little subversively and sneakyly, said Nejat Kehayov. We are also in favour of a stable local community and we want dialogue, and the association with its demands is doing the opposite - destabilization of local self-government. Mr. Kehayov explained in detail the legal procedure, which does not provide for resignation by the Municipal Council. If a councillor resigns, the next one on the party's list enters, and he can also resign at the earliest in 1 month. So the submission of resignations by all councillors means playing resignations for at least 1 year. The other option is the Municipal Council not to hold meetings for 6 months and the Municipal Election Commission to terminate its powers. but what will be the consequences: at least the municipality will be left without a voted budget and salaries, and Velingrad will be left without local authority. Nejat Kehayov also believes that there are certain political interests behind the demands of the civil association, as it is evident that he declared himself in defense of Fidel Beev. Would there have been a declaration of a civil association if the Municipal Council had not declared against the contract between the municipality and Beev and Beev for the clean-up, if it had not voted to remove the temporary mayor Stoyan Dulev and if it had allocated money for Chepinets-Beev FC? To this journalistic question N. Kehayov replied: "When Mr. Beev had a majority in the Municipal Council, there was no criticism. It started after the request for maintenance of sports clubs, including FC Chepinets-Beev. Wishes were made to give away the Beach and the Market, which the City Council would not agree to, including me. Under the cleanup contract, we recommended that it be broken. If all this had not happened, there would be no tension now."
The chairman and councillors said that after this declaration the Municipal Council would be more united and more responsible; they could not afford the luxury of pulling out the axe of discord, so they sought dialogue.
Elena Baeva