The dog barks, the caravan (of GERB) moves on

"On March 21, 1986, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party and Chairman of the State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, Comrade Todor Zhivkov, accepted the resignation of Comrade Grisha Filipov from all state posts.

Comrade Filipov remains a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party. The party will rely on his invaluable experience in the daily struggle to improve the situation of the working people, together with the fraternal USSR."

With these words, Radan Kanev commented on Facebook the announced resignation of Tsvetan Tsvetanov from his position as a member of parliament from the GERB Party. And unfortunately, indeed, in view of the events of the last days (and hours), we cannot help but draw a parallel between what is happening at the moment and the practices of the nomenclature of a totalitarian and completely imbued with corruption communist regime.

The return of the GERB deputy chairman from his trip to the US this Wednesday had a perversely triumphant flavor, given the serious scandal he has been embroiled in over the past week and a half. Despite the serious suspicions of corruption, despite the huge wave of public discontent, despite Boyko Borisov's threat that "there will be consequences", after his return, Tsvetan Tsvetanov hugged (in his own words) Borisov and calmly announced his resignation from parliament, not even failing to note that he did not believe he had done anything "immoral".

Tsvetanov – "punished", but not quite...

Judging by the severity of the "punishment", the rest of GERB also does not seem to think that Tsvetanov has done anything immoral. Although he is saying goodbye to his seat in parliament, Tsvetanov remains deputy chairman of GERB and will even head the party's election headquarters. In other words, he is not deprived of any real power in the ruling party at all, but simply parting with the most minor and even symbolic position he holds.

If Borisov and GERB really wanted to punish Tsvetanov, then he would have been at least temporarily removed from his positions of power within the party. This means that at least while the investigation announced by the NRA and the KPKONPI into the suspicious apartment deals lasts, Tsvetanov should not hold positions of power in the party structure (how much one can rely on these investigations is another question, especially considering that the chairman of the KPKONPI was proposed by GERB and that there are already suspicions of property violations against him).

What does this resignation of Tsvetanov solve? Absolutely nothing. Does it solve the moral problem? Absolutely not. Quite the opposite – it shows that GERB is actually not at all moved by any moral issue. And the issue is very serious. I will not comment on the details of the scandal with Tsvetanov's notorious apartments – I myself am not an investigative journalist and other media outlets have written enough on the topic, for example here, here and here. What I want to draw attention to is the attitude of GERB and the ruling party towards this scandal and, accordingly, their attitude towards the Bulgarian people as a whole.

Fake resignations – regular crisis PR

Of course, fake resignations are nothing new for GERB. Every time Borisov worries about the government's and his own ratings, he immediately reaches for someone's resignation from the cabinet, hoping that this will win him the sympathy of the electorate. Over the years, this is how Borisov has built an image of a "strict but fair" leader, at least among voters who lean towards GERB. Unfortunately, although such tactics are enough to save Borisov and GERB's ratings, they never achieve real change for the better. After so many resignations (do you even remember the last ones before those of Tsvetanov and Tsacheva?) of so many ministers from various departments, have you seen anything change for the better? Has the work of the state in a given sector become better? More transparent? Less corrupt?

The same with Tsvetanov's resignation. Here, the blinding of the public's eyes is even more transparent than usual. Tsvetanov ceases to be a member of parliament, but even officially continues to be the second most key figure in GERB, who will even lead their election headquarters. Think for a moment what message this sends. GERB cares so little about the property scandal that they will even leave Tsvetanov as the organizer of this year's election campaign for local elections. Another fake resignation with a PR goal to calm tensions.

Is Borisov afraid of pressuring Tsvetanov?

In this particular case, the situation is more sensitive than usual, because if Tsvetanov suffers serious consequences and is even temporarily removed from positions of power in the party, this could lead to a split in GERB. There have been rumors for a very long time about tension within GERB between Tsvetanov and Tomislav Donchev and even Tsvetanov and Boyko Borisov. If Tsvetanov is removed from his positions of power within the party, he may take this as a serious insult and humiliation, given how key a figure he has been throughout the history of GERB since its founding in 2006.

Accordingly, the removal of Tsvetanov from his key positions within GERB would create a risk that he would secede, along with his loyal people, and this would subsequently lead to the collapse of the party and a certain loss in the next elections. Right now, this risk is especially frightening in view of the fact that local elections are coming. Tsvetanov is known as the figure within GERB who is most involved and knows their local structures. Without him, the risk of losing the local elections becomes very high.

That is why Borisov categorically does not want to take actions that could cost the local elections or even the integrity (and therefore the power) of GERB. And that is why we are being presented with a completely phony "punishment", with Tsvetanov's resignation from parliament, which even he himself does not take as something serious, judging by his behavior in front of the media. From all this, it is obvious that GERB is simply trying, through another episode of crisis PR of a painfully worn-out type, to cover up the situation and calm public passions. The formula is clear - Tsvetanov resigns from parliament, a hasty investigation is conducted by the anti-corruption body, which is 99% certain that it will not establish a violation of the law and the whole scandal will be hushed up just as quickly as it broke out.

How long will they throw dust in our eyes?

All this clearly demonstrates that, against the endorsements of known and unknown media shills of GERB and their useful idiots, the party itself does not see any moral problem at all. Any claims that this is a "praiseworthy" and provoked by some "moral" decision on the part of the party and Tsvetanov are not just ridiculous, but downright impudent. The whole story is a mockery. A mockery of all of us - the Bulgarian voters as a whole.

The question now is – what are we going to do? Will this scandal end here? Is there any Bulgarian voter who is satisfied with this "resolution" of the scandal? I seriously doubt it. Let's not allow dust to be thrown in our eyes once again and we close them. At least until the elections are over. No, this time it has to be different. There have to be consequences – at least during the elections. Otherwise, the GERB caravan will continue to go on as before, with all the known and unknown corruption schemes, no matter how much it "barks" in the media.

Image source: Bulgaria ON AIR

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