Sofia Governor Denies PM Pressured Him to Step Down

Domestic | September 12, 2016, Monday // 10:44|  views

Veselin Penev, who resigned as Sofia District Governor earlier in September. Photo: BGNES

Sofia District Governor Veselin Penev has refuted claims that Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov had tried to pressure him into resigning.

Penev's resignation follows revelations from the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) that earlier this summer he sold state property in the center of Sofia at a price of BGN 90 per sq m.

Penev has told bTV he had acted out of "moral grounds" and does not rule out that he might be reappointed once an ongoing probe into the affair has ended.

He has denied being a "fuse" in the run-up to the presidential election campaign.

His appointment as Sofia District Governor was proposed by the Reformist Bloc, the junior partner in Bulgaria's minority coalition government.

The so-called Tsarski Konyushni ("King's stables") were formerly used by the royal family. They later became a protected heritage site but their status was abolished. 

The news website Dnevnik.bg quotes Rosen Malinov, a former Sofia District Governor, as saying the building was worth EUR 5.6 M five years earlier.

The price tag of the deal done by Penev was BGN 0.659 M, or roughtly EUR 0.337 M.

Tsarski Konyushni was sold tp Evrotransbild, a company that had already owned 16% of the building.

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Tags: sofia, BSP, Boyko Borisov, Veselin Penev, Reformist Bloc

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