Bulgaria Minister: No Grounds for Legal Action over 'Hochegger Affair'

Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov has said that the accusations are aimed at socialist leader Sergey Stanishev, rather than his girlfriend, Monika Yanova. Photo by BGNES

Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov has denied the existence of a personalized attack against Monika Yanova, PR expert and live-in girlfriend of socialist leader Sergey Stanishev in connection with the 'Hochegger affair'.

In a Thursday interview for private TV station bTV, Naydenov specified that his comments on the scandal with the Austrian lobbyist had been quotes of publications in Austrian print media.

The Agriculture Minister advised Yanova, who said she would sue him, to also file lawsuits against Austrian parliamentarians and newspapers.

Naydenov noted that the attack was not against Yanova but against Stanishev, leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and former Prime Minister, whose name
figures prominently in the scandal.

To illustrate his point, he said that there were existing contracts for PR services between Yanova's company and Bulgarian Ministries.

In a TV interview on Sunday, Naydenov argued that the media hype surrounding the egg price spike was aimed at diverting public attention from the Hochegger scandal.

The name of Austrian lobbyist Peter Hochegger made headlines in Bulgaria as it turned out that his consultancy company had been paid EUR 1.5 M by the three-way coalition government to carry out a promotional campaign titled "Reinforcing the Positive Image of the Republic of Bulgaria in the European Union".

Former Austrian Interior Minister Ernst Strasser was reported to have received EUR 100 000 from Hochegger as a fee for advising Bulgaria on how to boost its image in the EU and how to reform its criminal police.

According to the reports of Austrian and Bulgarian media outlets, however, Strasser's name is nowhere to be found in the contract between Bulgaria and Hochegger's firm.

In a Wednesday statement, Monika Yanova clarified that her PR agency had been a subcontractor of Hochegger's consultancy firm between 2006 and 2008 on two contracts worth a total of EUR 260 000.

Yanova said that the money had gone to press conferences and publications in European media outlets promoting Bulgaria's post-EU accession progress.

The PR expert apologized for denying the existence of the contracts with the Austrian lobbyist in her previous interviews.

"I did this because I was afraid that the main goal of the case was its political impact," she reasoned.

She stressed that her name was not involved in any way in the political corruption scandal in Austria and vowed legal action against her accusers.

In his Sunday interview, Minister Naydenov declared that the case would be a huge stain on Bulgaria's image that would equal the deeply entrenched idea of Bulgaria's involvement in the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II.

The Agriculture Minister emphasized that the scheme implemented by the ex PM and his girlfriend "through her media empire" would eventually be revealed.

He argued that the media hype surrounding the bonus payments to public officials and the egg price hike had been used to deflect attention from the hot topic.

"I asked if it was moral to spend money on imaginary causes, as is the case with brushing up Bulgaria's image in the EU. It was precisely at that point that the EU suspended funding for Bulgaria," Naydenov said on Thursday.

"If this was all about boosting Bulgaria's image, why did these poor reports come out and why did they freeze the money," he asked.

Naydenov noted that the accusations were not aimed at Yanova, but rather at Stanishev, who had unabashedly wasted the money.

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