Bulgaria's Interior Minister Ivan Demerjiev faces GER‑B accusations over road‑safety contracts and DPS travel probe

GERB deputy chair Daniel Mitev accused Interior Minister Ivan Demerjiev of misleading the public on road‑safety measures and of defaming former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. Mitev alleged that contracts for road‑safety equipment (mantinels) signed by regional minister Ivan Shishkov in 2022‑2025 were later cancelled and called for a court case against Demerjiev.

Demerjiev responded to a complaint from DPS lawyer Hamid Hamid about alleged illegal data‑collection on DPS leader Delian Peevski, saying, “Obviously some people are worried, that makes me think I’m on the right track.” He denied any unlawful orders, blamed DPS for projecting its practices onto others, and promised prosecutions over alleged misuse of public funds, citing delayed highway‑repair cases.

GERB parliamentarians, including Tom Bikov and Nikolay Nankov, pressed Demerjiev to investigate the mantinel contracts signed during previous cabinets and questioned ongoing payments linked to former ministers. A parliamentary hearing produced conflicting accounts of a flight involving Peevski and future constitutional judge Desislava Atanasova; former interior minister Emil Dechev later claimed the flights were separate and that no public figure travelled with Peevski on the same aircraft.