A delegation from the DPS party met Patryk Jaki, co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, at the European Parliament in Brussels, the party's press office said. They discussed the EU's multi-year budget and the actions of interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev.
The DPS says its delegation told partners about cases of abuse of power, political meddling in the day-to-day work of law enforcement and violations of human rights. It says Demerdzhiev and his political team are behind them.
DPS MEPs will present the cases today to ECR members and to the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the statement said.
The party says Jaki fully backed the DPS and wants open discussions and concrete steps to deal with the problem. The statement said the meeting was held in a spirit of understanding, mutual support and cooperation.
The ECR and DPS agree that the EU's future budget should give local authorities money, tools, programmes and clear rules for support, because municipalities are closest to people's problems.
Much of the talk was about the ECR's wish to work with the DPS on the group's initiatives. These cover the security of allies, and resilience against Russian hybrid and kinetic attacks on NATO's Eastern Flank and in the Black Sea. The DPS said it continues to take an active part in shaping EU policy on security and solidarity, and defends Bulgaria's national interest.
DPS leader Delyan Peevski asked prosecutors on Monday to look into claims by Demerdzhiev. "In several public statements Ivan Demerdzhiev has put forward a baseless, absurd and even comic thesis," Peevski said.
He says the minister is trying to link his own actions to the series of threats against schools, kindergartens and other public buildings, in order to prove a link that does not exist between a Bulgarian company and the payment for Peevski's flights. "I have said many times that my family and I paid for these flights," the DPS leader said.
The delegation included Iskra Mihaylova, deputy chair of the DPS and of its parliamentary group, and Radoslav Revanski, a DPS deputy chair who is mayor of Belitsa and a member of the Committee of the Regions. Also travelling were MP Atidzhe Veli, a member of the Central Operational Bureau (COB), Nedzhmi Ali, mayor of Dzhebel and also a COB member, and MP Stanislav Anastasov, adviser to the DPS chair on international affairs. With the delegation and the DPS MEPs were Taner Kabilov, a COB member, and Elena Yoncheva.