PM: The discrediting disclosures aim at early elections and interim government

An extraordinary briefing of Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov was held on June 17 at the GERB headquarters after photos alleged to be from the Prime Minister's bedroom were circulated online earlier during the day.

This comes a few days after audio recording with words allegedly attributable to the Prime Minister was leaked through the media.

Speaking at the news briefing, Boyko Borissov commented that the attacks against him and the ruling party were aimed at overthrowing the government and provoking early parliamentary elections and forming a caretaker government. According to him, the attacks come from the political opponents - from the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), President Rumen Radev is also involved, he said.

Our political opponents hit rock bottom today, Borissov said.

He stressed that the reason for the attacks could be because July is an important month for the country, because Bulgaria is advancing towards the waiting room of the eurozone, which means monetary independence.

What caused this rage? Elections come in just a few months. (Ed. note - Bulgaria will hold parliamentary elections around March 2021 and presidential elections in the autumn of 2021). Someone wants an interim government. Why? Because through the interim government, a billion and a half BGN would go in another direction.

When did we become unsuitable - when we took Bulgaria out of an orbit and through the acquisition of the new F-16 aircraft we sent Bulgaria directly in the true Euro-Atlantic community. Since then is the hatred towards us, Borissov said.

The PM guessed who could be behind the discrediting attacks.

"President Radev, and hence, the BSP, Tsvetanov (former GERB Parliamentary leader who left GERB party today), Maya Manolova, (Manolova is a former BSP MP and former national ombudsman who lost the latest mayoral race in Sofia, Slavi Trifonov ( a popular TV show host who initiated a national referendum on election rules.) The Prime Minister also added the right-wing Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party to the list, saying: "They would embrace the last communist, but not GERB, he added.

The Prime Minister said: "I have been warning you every day about compromising materials. It is written in the KGB textbooks: you should work out such a compromising material that the intended victim should be disgusted with himself just by looking at it."

"The purpose is to crush us psychologically and then hurl at us physically." He added.

Borissov again said that the audio recording of a conversation, circulated a few days ago, is fake and there are suspicions who made it.

They tried to discredit me, to spoil the relation with Tsveta (Referring to Tsveta Karayancheva, the Speaker of Parliament), Borissov said. The threats come not from anyone, but from the head of state, from the person who should be uniting the nation. And now they want to put me in the mud, he added.

He accused the President of spying on him with a drone.

"President Radev allows himself to launch a drone and take pictures of me. All the time. And when I tell the security guards that I will take it down, they tell him and he puts it away. This drone comes near the terrace, next to my kitchen, virtually one metre away from me. It could be carrying an explosive. And he controls this drone. I personally say the President spied on me with a drone. The National Service for Protection informed me that it was given to him by China and he manages it and looks after it, Borissov said.

Borrisov said he expects the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the scandals.