Bulgarian Govt to Tear Down Illegal Luxury Villa Resort

Bulgarian PM (middle) pictured here in Burgas on Saturday has vowed the destruction of an illegal villa complex. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's PM has vowed to either confiscate, or destroy a wholly illegally luxury villa complex on the banks of the Ivaylovgrad water reservoir.

Prime Minister Borisov was in the Black Sea city of Burgas Saturday for the inauguration of new coast guard patrol ships.

He commented that the illegal resort of 45 high-class luxury villas, which is not even on the map, and was built completely illegally, could be confiscated to the benefit of the state.

The luxury mansion properties belong to people from Sofia and the southeastern border town of Svilengrad, who are mostly senior civil servants such as customs agents and traffic controllers as well as businessmen.

"There is no option of legalizing this illegal construction. These palaces have existed for so many years on state-owned land. There is only one explanation for that. They belong to the people who gathered money and gave it to the political parties. That is I have instructed my staff to find me a legal provisions that will allow the government to either confiscate to the benefit of the state, or to tear down these properties," Borisov said.

He slammed anybody who suggests that the owners of the illegal buildings should pay the government in order to legalize them, and promised to have a final decision about the luxury villa resort by Monday.

An report of Nova TV has shown that the Ivaylovgrad reservoir, one of the largest in Bulgaria, is owned by the state, and is managed by the National Electric Company NEK but is used as a private lake. There is hardly any way to reach the reservoir as it is fenced off with large mansions guarded by private security companies.

The owners of the properties include the deputy director of the "Road Fees and Permits" in the Svilengrad Customs Office, Tencho Vasilev, and the director of the Svilengrad Customs Stefan Marashev.

Even though the luxury properties are illegal, they are connected to the public electricity and water supply network.

The southeastern border town of Svilengrad is known as the Bulgarian town with the largest per capita number of millionaires thanks to the fact that it is the home of most customs officers from the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing point, which is the major land route of Turkish goods and passengers into the EU.

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