THEY FORCE ME TO BE A HERO-MARTYR

     Minister Bonev declared that the audit of the Mayor of Rousse reached the conclusion that the court should be involved. "The economic police took two of the files of the Audits Chamber and was interested in my firms - which one and when is liquidated, whether they have tax depts. Since 1990 till now members of my family or I have had shares in many firms, some of which do not exist any more. Only 4-5 of them are in operation and they provide work places for 400 people. I have no share in them and I have received no remuneration since I've become mayor till now", says the Mayor of Rousse Dimitar Kalchev and adds: "...The firms pay their taxes regularly. The business I do is straight."

If preliminary inquest against you commences what will be your reaction, Mr. Kalchev?

I have informed the Council of Europe and the Chamber of the Regions at CLRAE in particular, of which I'm a member. I'll find an adequate defense and I'll pose the issue automatically to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.

They continue to blame you that you are related with and service the interests of the business circle of "Multigroup"?

Since I've become a mayor I have no relations with "Multigroup". Before that I maintained loyal contacts with this circle.

Minister Evgenii Bakardzhiev and Minister Muravei Radev accused you that you have turned the city into a financial pyramid (investment scheme). Are you a Pharaoh?

I recollect with pain this as with the Minister of Finance Muravei Radev started a dialogue between the National Association of Municipalities and the Central Government. For three years we have carried rather prospective cooperation. I've always believed that we do something useful for strengthening the local self-government as a positive partner of the Government, and not as an opponent.

Minister Muravei Radev and Deputy Minister Christo Michailovski deny to have been persuading you to give up a second mandate? When and where did you talk to them?

I met Muravei Radev in his office after the meeting of the Ministers of Finance in Scopije. It was a very undemocratic discussion. I had to understand from him that I should not apply for a second mandate because otherwise I can expect mud to be poured over me as well as blows below the waist. Another conversation followed with the Deputy-Minister Christo Michailovski - in Rousse in an apartment of the "Riga" Hotel. Both talks are real despite the denials in the press. Muravei Radev keeps on repeating that we'll see in court but all I say is true. Even a month and a half ago I was explained that if I did not withdraw I would be involved in a preliminary inquest. However, then I still believed that the common sense would prevail, that there were democratic principles of dialogue with the central authority. I've never expected such a difficult development of the events. But it turns to be an incentive for me. Obviously, they are afraid of me. Such numerous visits of a Deputy Prime Minister, of Ministers, even of the power Minister Bonev (Minister of Interior) mean that they are very concerned about the pre-election situation in Rousse. I can't make out, however, what caused those terrible attacks against me.

Mr. Ivan Kostov, the Prime Minister, declared that Rousse is extremely important for the governing body?

I do not know why Rousse is so important and why all the towns should be "blue" (the color of the party of the United Democratic Forces). The previous mandate Rousse had blue governance and the sad facts are well known. Even Zhivkov (the former head of the Communist party and leader of Bulgaria till 1989) maintained the Bulgarian Agricultural People's Union (a political party in Bulgaria) so that we could have two-party system before the foreign countries.

Did you meet the Prime Minister?

Sure, got Mr. Kostov acquainted with the real economic situation in the municipalities and in Rousse. It was a very constructive dialogue and Ivan Kostov paid enough attention to it. Concerning the manners and the understanding achieved, there was nothing in common with the meeting with Muravei Radev.

If you have the possibility to meet Ivan Kostov now what would you tell him?

That unlike some ministers, his rating is very high in Bulgaria, according to me and to many European leaders. The Prime Minister should stay higher than the level of some simple ministers. During the initial years they could have done well enough their jobs as partisans of a hard-line policy. But currently they place Kostov in a tricky situation and he does not deserve it.

What of the pre-election campaign surprised you most?

This is such a nasty campaign which Bulgaria does not remember since the beginning of the democratic changes in ~989. The extreme politization should have been stopped as it brought nothing good to our country, the people should have been given the opportunity to elect persons and to find a way to involve a big part of the citizenship in the governance. But everything went wrong.

How far could the political blackmailing reach?

 The things are already out of control. What happens in Rousse in not only a local case, but an illustrating example for Bulgaria. The same manner of acting is typical for Bourgass also. If the police, the prosecutor's office and the Court are involved there is no limit.

What would be your way of working with the Government during a possible second mandate?

A normal Government will correct its attitude towards the local authorities after the results of the elections because in all cases more than 50% of the mayors will be representatives of the opposition again. So I ask myself the reverse question. What will such a Government do in this situation? I could definitely be taken with some kind of prejudice, but is it possible to take 60% of the municipalities in such a way? I think that the common sense will prevail.

A month ago you said that you entered the pre-election competition out of stubbornness?

After the pressure and everything that is happening my withdrawal would have been a display of weakness on my part, of guilty conscious. Each of us apart from working to earn money and strengthen his or her professional positions has some kind of image also. I also have it before the international consulting firms and foreign investors. I could hardly find words to explain them why, after working together for a year and a half and the draft projects of the communal holding have been prepared, I suddenly leave them alone on the road. Without having passed the activities to another person.

But you do not keep in secret that if you decide to give up, it will be after the elections?

This is honorable.

Who is afraid of you, Mr. Kalchev?

I think I do not deserve landing of the whole Council of Ministers by cars and helicopters and such a mass attack to Rousse. Only the tanks have not been put into operation. After all I'm a person of small and medium-size business. A mayor who have tried during these years to do something new for Rousse and its citizens.

Don't you think that you are striding too quickly and that you are trying to run ahead of the time?

Yes, that could be said. When we started working on the energy holding, the new Energy Act in Bulgaria had not been adopted. In this aspect I really rushed ahead. The limits of our thinking at the moment are very low. Perhaps that is why even the little I propose is seen as very big...

But now I feel bad and awfully depressed. Even if 1 win the elections I will still be deeply aggrieved. No matter one does one's best, time will come when one will be blamed with all sins possible and thrown away.

Dimitar Kalchev: "There was too much "salt in the soup" in this pre-election campaign. It should have been measured so that it could be effective. The excess rejection made people feel sorry for me. There is just a little left to make me a hero-martyr of a cause which I do not know. They should have had a normal dialogue with me and not attacking me with hems ahead. If I was normally explained that I should not be nominated again and was told the reasons for not being a mayor, I would have retrieved."